Researched, Written and Edited By: MarkEAW

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CONTENTS

PLANE INTRODUCTION
COCKPIT | INSTRUMENTS | GUNSIGHT
EFFECTS | FLIGHT | ORDNANCE | PILOTS | RENDER DISTANCE
SKINS | 3D PLANE MODELS

This page provides information on the available mods to customize your planes. Inside and out.

Related Download Links:
-plane-cockpit

Notes:
This section contains the standard 2D Cockpits and the 3D Virtual Cockpits, Pilot Wing Views and Gauges.
If your looking for a Cockpit for a particular type of plane and you do not find it here, it's best to also download all the plane skins for that type of aircraft, those archives will sometimes contain new cockpits within those archives.

P-51B Cockpit with "Malcolm Hood" Style Canopy: (P51BMal.zip 22.2kb)
by JWC.
For the P-51B Mustang 'Malcolm cockpit' view.
(P-51B Slot)

Wide View Armor for P-47D Thunderbolt: (WVAP47D10.zip 46.4kb)
by JWC.
Provides the cockpit Wide View or Ultra Slim View for the Republic P-47D fighter in EAW.
(P-47D Slot)

Modified Bar P47c Cockpit

If you fly the "Razorback" version of P-47, then you already know that sometimes the large vertical bar in the windscreen can be rather annoying. At least it was there in the real Razorback P-47's. However, if you fly with ECA Control Panel, then you know that the P-47C cockpit is used for the cockpits of the Wildcat and the Hellcat. Here the appearance of the bar is not only annoying, it is not realistic at all, since these aircraft did not have such a bar!

There have been "bar less" or "thin bar" cockpits developed by community members, but they did not always work with some video cards or at certain resolutions, and the cockpit bar would return displaying only when firing on some these. But a solution was finally made...

Why would you want to remove the bar?
The center post obscures the target at some angles and ranges, making it difficult to observe the target aircraft's attitude (and thus predict its next move). In a real aircraft, a pilot should be able to move his head at least an inch or two to one side (even while pulling some G) in order to get one eye around the bar. Having a portion of your vision permanently blocked off, with no way to see "around the bar", is not really realistic. The only alternative is to turn the entire cockpit off and on intermittently, which is far less realistic than using a modified cockpit view! The "thinner bar" seems more realistic to have for this purpose, since its just just reduced in width.

P47C No-Bar Cockpit: (P47C-ck.zip ??kb)
by Matt Van Vleck.
...for voodoo users...

P47C No-Bar Cockpit: (p47c_nobar.zip 3.95kb)
Developed by Paulo Morais.
A modified 3dz file (wireframe) for the P-47C. P47 With the bar removed from the center of the windshield. This is independent of video cards and resolution settings---they work with anything!
....also included in the .ZIP file of the skin of the 3D modified desert Spitfire V (the one with wing cannons).
If you put the file, with the name Pp47cv.3dz into your EAW main game folder first, EAW will use the new no bar cockpit rather than the original file with the normal central bar placed in the 3D.CDF file.

P47C Thin-bar Cockpit: (p47c_lessbar.zip 3.95kb)
Developed by Paulo Morais.
A modified 3dz file (wireframe) for the P-47C. This is independent of video cards and resolution settings---they work with anything!
....the thin-bar P47C cockpit too, can be found with Paulo's 3dz editing notes. Really good work. It makes the early Jugs flyable, and looks more realistic than the original.

P47C front window: (F6fckpit.zip 574kb)
by Charles Gunst.
Modified the P47C front windshield by removing the center post for 2D Cockpits. This is single file to cure the P47 cockpit bar visibility problem when flying the F6F Hellcat. It uses the P51B cockpit file. Simply copy the file P021VIEW.CPT to your EAW directory, and start EAW.

"Historically Correct" Messerschmitt 109E Canopy Framing: (?? ??kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
If you are a real stickler for historical authenticity, then you already know the canopy frame on EAW's version of the 109E is incorrect. But due to Paulo Morais's determination on how to edit the .3dz "wireframe models" in EAW, he has introduced the first historically accurate canopy frame for the Emil.

Instruments and Gauges

The stock cockpit instruments in EAW have never been the clearest, and if you run the higher resolutions beyond the 640x480 default you will only have the 3D virtual cockpit (and thus instruments which are not really readable). But there are now many "sharpened" instruments available to add. Migge and some of the other members of the EAW community have done some great virtual cockpit work, easily worth the small download.

Some "cockpit" upgrades already include sharpened instrument files along with the "view" files, so it would probably be unnecessary to add new instrument files for these aircraft, but if you download a whole pack of instruments it would also be more work to try to figure out which planes need them and which don't. You may find it much easier just to unzip ALL the new sharpened instrument files into your EAW folder, these new ones will overwrite the old ones. There actually maybe little noticeable difference between one set of sharpened instruments and the next, so it probably won't matter which instruments you have in your EAW folder. It should be remembered that there's only so much you can do with some aircraft: while most instruments become readable, there are exceptions like the Spitfire, where nothing can help the unreadable compass!

Instruments Sharpened For 3D Cockpits : (instruments20.zip 599kb)
by Angeleyes 666th / Red Skulls Squadron.
Complete Readable Instrument Collection. These TPC files apply sharpened instrument numbers and letters in the virtual cockpit view. old versions: Allied instr.only.zip 318kb , German instr.only.zip 250kb

Six Cockpit Interiors: (interior-six.zip)
by ?
Instruments are now readable for Spitfire Ia, IX and XIV, Mustang P51B and D and the Hurricane.

Cockpit Colors And Other Revisions

The internal cockpit colors of the Allied aircraft in EAW appear to be accurate. But the German aircraft have a seemingly inaccurate (and ugly) shade of blue. There are some community made add-on cockpits that recolor the German cockpits to a more accurate (and possibly, better-looking!) grey that approximates RLM 66 (the shade of grey that Luftwaffe cockpits were most commonly painted in).

--Custom Cockpits for the Me109G and K, the Me110G, and the FW190D are available...
(note: some of the following cockpits also include instruments in the zip file)

grey cockpit for the Me109E:
by JPI Jean Pigeon
made the first grey cockpit for the Me109E!

--Migge has made some great looking cockpits for Allied planes. You can find a terrific-looking one for the P-51D Mustang, and an almost photo-real one for the P-47D Thunderbolt. Also a new "Luftwaffe" collection of brand-new virtual cockpits for German aircraft. These are absolutely stunning! He has made gorgeous cockpits for the Typhoon and the Tempest as well.

HUD Fonts

There are more HUD text replacement files in the  game-patch-hexedited  download folder.

Large HUD Font: (LargeHUDFont.zip 8.82kb)
by VonBeerhofen.
These files will improve readability for on- and offline games. It was especially made to be used on larger monitors using higher resolutions (like 1600x1200). It will improve HUD and CHAT fonts and has the advantage that the game stays compatible online since it is only a graphical add-on as opposed to a change in the .EXE

Medium HUD Fonts v1.1: (MediumHUDfonts11.zip 31.6kb)
by Spit9.
Provides the Medium Fonts for the HUD. These fonts are intended to be used with King Rat's patch for EAW (version 1.2b). The fonts are just a combination of two other EAW original fonts (MAINTALL.FNT and THICKFNT.FSP). There are two more fonts added....I called them SNIPER.FNT and SNIPER.FSP. These fonts are in fact the original POPSERIF3 pair that is inside FONTS.CDF, but now you don't have to extract them. They work with GeForce (and other Nvidia cards, as well as 3Dfx cards), giving a better visual at 1024x768, and also work in 800x600. Even in 1280x1024 they are very acceptable.... Other File Name: MediumHUD11.zip

Related Download Links:
-plane-gunsights

Gunsights SIGHTPAC: (PapaRomeo_Gunsights_Mk3.zip 183kb)
by PapaRomeo.
has developed a series of historically realistic gunsights for EAW. Included are German Revi sights, British gunsights for the Battle of Britain and later, and American and Japanese sights. Old Versions: PapaRomeo_Gunsights_101.zip ??kb

v1.01 of the gunsight pack included 9 authentic replacement gunsights. All of these sights were based on photographs of the illuminated reticules of the WWII aerial gunsights. The only exceptions are the two Japanese gunsights, which are based on versions created by Takuya Watanabe for Aces High. I've also included a "ring and bead" gunsight for those of you flying P-40s and other early-war fighters. The "Mark 2" Gunsight Pack; I added US N-3 and N-9 sights, plus numerous other enhancements. The MARK III gunsight pack includes 49(!) gunsights. New is a whole bunch of “high visibility” sights, more US sights, including the USAAF version of the Mark8, as well as three authentic ground attack sights. One download gives you all the sights you’ll ever need!  All my sights are supplied ready for use with Viper’s Gunsight Manager and are fully compatible with NVIDIA and 3DFX video cards.

EAW Gunsights: (????many separate SPT download files???? ??kb)
by Viper.
If you want a wide range of interchangeable sights, you're in luck! He has developed many different sights for use in EAW at 800x600 resolution. Gunsights designed for Standard, Spitfire, FW190, ME BF109, P51 Mustang, and P38. If you want to switch between different gunsights quickly, he even has a "Gunsight Manager" program which will swap them in and out.

Gunsights Pack: (gunsightpacks.zip ??kb)
by PapaRomeo, includes Viper's Gunsight Manager.
...

Rigger's Gunsight Pack: (rigger gunsights.zip)
by Rigger.
...

High Visibility Gunsights: (HighVisibilityGunsights.zip 36.2kb)
by Rigger.
All of these gunsights are high visibility Red in color and are not historically correct. However, from my testing and those that have used them, they are said to be highly accurate when it comes to aiming.

LLv34 Alternate Gunsight: (gunsight.zip 2kb)
by LLv34_BlauKreuz, the CO of the Finnish-based online squadron LLv34.
If you are flying as a German pilot (or even if you're not!), I would highly recommend using this new cool-looking and usefull gunsight he developed. It really does seem to improve gunnery skills. To install, simply unzip the GUNSIGHT.SPT file into your EAW main directory.

Clear Glass / no-frost gunsight fix: (clearglass10.zip  or  ClearGlass10.zip 431kb)
by Dan Shaw.
Clear Gunsight Reflector Textures. Another great option for the EAW gunsights has been developed. This is the "no-frost" gunsight fix. Finally, a clear view through the gunsight! This removes reflections on the gunsight glass to make targeting easier. This fix is not really a gunsight per se, but rather improves your view through the gunsight. It is compatible with the add-on gunsights, so there's no worry there.

I've always wanted to get rid of the glare graphics on the glass of the gunsights -- you know, the hazy translucent band that runs right up the middle of most of the gunsights in EAW. If you use the transparent cockpit cheat, you may never have noticed this, but it bugged the hell out of me.

HarryM told me what files I needed to look at, so I've modified the cockpit transparencies for all 20 flyable planes in the game. I left enough "frosting" at the edges of the glass to keep a bit of the 3D look, but most of the centre area should be clear. They make Viper's gunsight reticles look much better.

The readme includes instructions -- basically the mods are to *.tpc files that you can handle like skins. One thing I left out from the readme -- you are free to distribute and modify the files as you wish, though I would appreciate receiving credit.

BTW, if anyone wants to redo the glass in the P-47s -- please do! While I'm pretty happy with most of the other sights (especially the various Spitfire ones), I gave up trying to make the P-47's look good after about an hour. (I think the default sights looked pretty bad to begin with.) The transparency texture seems to be rotated about 45 degrees to the right, if that helps anyone figure them out.

Related Download Links:
-plane-mod-effects
 

Effects Pack: (effects.zip 411kb)
by Max188.
A popular plane add-on. This provides better-looking smoke, fire, flak, and tracers. This add-on enhances many of the effects that EAW uses including smoke, fire, explosions, flak, hit debris, muzzle flash, and tracers. The game still renders these effects the same way, but the colors, textures, and detail are much improved.  This mod adds a lot to the visual quality of the game.

Effects Patch: (EffectsPatch.zip 472kb)
by VonBeerhofen aka VBH.
These files are only the tip of the iceberg on which I have spent about 640 hours to get to where they are now and I hope you will like them.

New superblast file with improved transparency
HighRes shells with 4 times higher resolution
HighRes dead (no more faceless) pilot with more blood and added attributes
New improved watersplash with better transparency
HighRes impact debris with 4 times higher resolution
New explosions and smoke with improved transparency
New contrails and smoketrails optimised to make them as lively as possible
New improved tracers
New improved fire
New improved sunglare with deliberate shimmering and better transparency
New muzzleflashes with improved transparency in 4 times higher resolution (although I have no idea where they are used)
Improved AAA clouds and explosions
and more.......

To install:

Extract to a G OAW folder of your choice or straight into your EAW folder.

Flame Enhancement: (flames2.zip 181kb)
by Max188.
This optional file is intended to be used with the EAW Effects Pack by Max188. If adds flames to damaged engines that are emitting black smoke. There are also some unintentional side-effects listed in the notes section that you need to be aware of. Old Versions: flames.zip

A companion to the Effects Pack. If you want to add flames to burning engines, get this Flames Enhancement mod. It adds trailing flames to the black smoke from damaged engines. As a side effect, it also changes how ground fires and train engine smoke is rendered. Requires the Effects Pack above to already be installed.

Flame Effects: (Pobsflames.zip 75.2kb)
by Pob's.
EAW Flame effects, -Air or Ground-. This optional file is intended to be used with the EAW Effects Pack by Max188. If adds flames to damaged engines that are emitting black smoke. There are also some unintentional side-effects listed in the notes section that you need to be aware of. Flame effects, Air or Ground...damaged plane engine flames and ground object damaged flames...

Rocket and LensFlare Effects: (RocketandLensFlare.zip 633kb)
by VonBeerhofen aka VBH.
These files are an addition to my EFFECTS PATCH and will give you a choice of 16 different Lens/Rocketflares with 3 different transparency depths (TRA64) in a 4 times higher resolution then the default files in EAW. It runs as a standalone package and can be freely added to other effect patches.
There are two subfolders in the zip and you need to take one file from each folder and rename it before copying them into an OAW folder of your choice or into your EAW folder.

Smoke: (SmokeVBH.zip 181kb)
by VonBeerhofen aka VBH.
...

Tracer And Explosion Effects: (TracerAndExplosionEffects.zip 658kb)
by Max188.
This add-on enhances many of the effects that EAW uses including smoke, fire, explosions, flak, hit debris, muzzle flash, and tracers. The game still renders these effects the same way, but the colors, textures, and detail are much improved.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Unzip this package to a directory.

2) Copy the .spt files to your EAW directory.

3) Enjoy the enhanced effects!


Notes:

1) You can revert to the original effects by removing these .spt files.

2) This mod should have no impact on performance.

3) The tracers share the same colors as the lens flare, so you will notice the coloring of the lens flares are a bit different. You may turn off lens flare under graphics options if desired.

4) The tracers have different colors depending on the gun size. The categories are large cannon, small cannon, large caliber, and small caliber ammo loads.

5) This package includes optional tracer files for default, medium bright, bright, smoke, green, and solid muzzle tracers. If you wish to use any of these, just rename the appropriate file to hwexplos.spt and copy it to your EAW directory. You may want to turn off lens flare with some of the tracers.

6) If you want to create your own tracer colors, you can edit the hwexplos.pcx file and use picpac to convert to an spt file. The tracers are built from the 4 color boxes (from left to right): muzzle flash and large cannon, small cannon, large caliber, and small caliber. Keep in mind all but the large cannon are also used as lens flare images.

7) At distance, all tracers change to a yellow/orange dot, and are not affected by this mod.

HiRes Flak Pack: (???? ??kb)
by Ghostboy.
...

Related Download Links:
-plane-mod-flight

There are a number of these types Modification's available for download. What you need to be aware of, is that these are designed to be placed directly into your EAW 1.2 system, and they will CHANGE the way all the aircraft in the game behave, and if you do not use one of the Plane/Flight Model Manager programs you will be stuck with most of these new modifications, unless of course you remove the custom flight model data files manually.

How come we can't use just the plain old EAW 1.2 as it was put out by MicroProse?
You can. Not everyone wants to mod their flight data.

What's the reasoning for all the various mods?
When EAW was released, in some pilots opinions, MicroProse EAW Team left some major bugs in it. It seemed that the flight models were not quite right. Apparently the EAW Team designers were under pressure to release the product in time for the Christmas Rush.
What came out initially was a version in which the British Planes seemed to have magical powers over all the other aircraft in the game, and naturally if you were involved in either a Luftwaffe Squadron, or an American Squadron you were sadly disappointed in the way the aircraft were modeled.

So each of these Modification's will change or alter the flight characteristics of the EAW Aircraft in some form or another. Some of them actually give you more aircraft than was originally in the game. Here's a short list of some of the various Modification's that you will most likely want to try. -EAW 1.2 - ECA/ECA CP - ECA Online - RIP - RIP PLUS - MSA are just a few.

Enemy Coast Ahead or ECA: (eca14.zip 7616kb apox 7.6Mb)
by Charles Gunst.
Was one of the first FM add-ons made (released in October 1999). He has written some excellent add-ons to improve just about everything from the flight model of every plane down to the gun pattern. This lets you fly almost every EAW aircraft in campaign mode. To fly Bombers, the B-17, B-24 and V-1 you must use a pilot career, this is due to limitations of the ability to alter EAW's internal game structure. Older version: eca12.exe 7.5meg , V1.3b 710kb

A new set of *.flt files and *.dat files for EAW. He fixed some of the issues that 1.2 addressed as well as making some changes to 1.2. The airplanes are tougher, for example. I recommend using ECA (Enemy Coast Ahead) flight models even if you are going to fly the standard aircraft. This set of flight models should be used in conjunction with ECA Control Panel.  Note: This flight model set (ECA) should not be confused with the (ECAo) 'ECA Online' , a separate FM package.

The latest version of ECA v1.4 by Charles Gunst was updated for EAW v1.2. Flight models, while subjective, just feel right with the ECA add-on. Fly some previously un-flyable planes (except for the four-engine types and the V-1) the He-111, Me-410A Hornisse, Junkers Ju-88C "Wonder Bomber" and Junkers Ju-87B Stuka, De Havilland Mosquito Mark VI, the Martin B-26B Marauder and more. (Be warned, the Stuka is NO match for any Allied fighter. If you can complete a career in a Stuka, you have certainly earned your wings!). ECA modifies many of the files in EAW to add more realistic flight models, armor values and ballistics. This program is essential to get the most out of the sim, in ones opinion. The last official MicroProse patch reduced the armor values of all planes. For an example: One burst of .50 caliber or 20mm cannon fire is all it takes to claim a victory. So ECA increases the armor values to more acceptable levels. ECA makes significant changes to the weapons modeling, it uses the "real" velocities and rates of fire. (the stock EAW has very low muzzle velocities (far lower than in real life), resulting in excessive "bullet drop" at longer ranges and requiring more lead in deflection shots. It also has incorrect rates of fire.) ECA also introduces some new weapons. You may now choose to employ the Henschel HS-293 anti-ship rocket bomb. Panzerschreck anti-tank rockets. The famous Fritz-X. Napalm, and the SD-2 "Butterfly bomb", an early fragmentation weapon.

ECA 1.4 FULL is approximately a 7.6MB download. There is also an "ECA 1.4 Update" available (eca14upd.zip), this is 142Kb and is intended for people who already have any earlier version of ECA. (Use on top of 1.0, 1.1 or 1.2 install). The "Update" will bring the earlier versions of ECA up to 1.4 standard without the need for the 7.6MB download. But if you don't have an earlier version, then you will need the big download! The Fw-190A8 is now less-armored but far more maneuverable A4 model. By popular demand, the Bf-109K is now the K6 model, with an extra 2xMk 108 30mm cannon in the wings. Extensive changes have been made to weapons characteristics.

As far as the 3D shapes (Models) and skins go, these aircraft already exist in the sim, so there is nothing NEEDed to be added. Although all of the aircraft in EAW can stand a new skin add-on to make them visually more attractive.
 

ECA 1.4 does the following (many advantages over the "stock" EAWv1.2):
a) Stock EAW has 20 flyable airplanes, 9 non-flyable ones, and the V-1 (that is, not flyable by you the human player---out of the box, they could only be flown by the AI). ECA 1.4 allows you to fly 7 of the originally non-flyable aircraft in EAW plus the 20 original flyable ones. (the new ones that are now flyable are the De Havilland Mosquito VI, Martin B26B Marauder, Junkers Ju-87B Stuka, Junkers Ju88A Bomber, Junkers Ju88C fighter, Heinkel He-111 H, and the Messercchmitt Me-410 Hornisse fighter). You still cannot fly the four-engine bombers (B-17 and B-24) and the V-1 is still non-flyable (always crashes when landing, and there are no careers for it anyhow).
The newly flyable aircraft are not available in single missions or quick start missions, they are only available in Campaigns (Career Mode) simply because the aircraft type were not originally flyable in stock EAW. I would love to be able to do single missions in the new planes, but single missions are controlled by a menu file, and the menu accesses an array, the location of which has not been found. I have asked Microprose for information about this, but with no success.
So while with many of the careers these aircraft can be flown in will have a lot of attack or interdiction missions, there will still be an occasional fighter sweep or escort mission, even if you're flying a Stuka. EAW was not really designed for missions in some of these aircraft ,  So there are no campaigns built around the B-26 Marauder, for instance. If you fly the Marauder, you will get escort and fighter sweep missions you get will still be fighter missions, since no one is able to edit the code for EAW yet. Although these will not really stop you from hunting for ground targets to pulverize on your own!

b) Changes the flight models of all the aircraft to more realistic ones. ECA 1.4 modifies the performance of many of the aircraft to be closer to reality. In regular EAW 1.2, the German aircraft don't seem to perform as well as they should (contrary to what some company programmers would have you think, German engineers were NOT trying to get their pilots killed---German aircraft were a lot better than made out in EAW 1.2!). American aircraft, too, seem to be a little toned down both in performance and maneuverability. ECA 1.4 addresses some of these problems and tries to correct them.
Also includes the "ECA Control Panel 2.0". This allows you to substitute several different flight models for each of the 30 aircraft in EAW. When all is said and done, you have about 150 different aircraft to choose from! ECA CP 2.0 includes Italian, Japanese, and Russian aircraft! Example: the Bf109G slot is used for eleven different aircraft! There are 2 versions of 109F, six 109G's, 3 Japanese Tony's, and an Italian Macchi C.205! ECA CP 2.0 also includes an editing function that allows you to modify information concerning your unit and the pilots in your squadron, including yourself! With this, you can move to another base, equip your squadron with just about any aircraft available in ECA CP 2.0, or refresh all your pilots Morale and Fatigue levels (yes, EAW does track this for your AI pilots!), among other things. But wait, v2.0 may be the latest version of ECA Control Panel, but v3.0 is just around the corner!

c) Makes SUBSTANTIAL changes to the gun modeling. These changes are in the muzzle velocity (stock EAW is universally much too low and the rates of fire are off a little, varies between too high and too low). Since in stock EAW the muzzle velocities are WAY too low, this leads to excessive loss of trajectory ("bullet drop") at longer ranges and makes it hard to hit anything unless you're right on top of it. For an example: ROFs of the .50cal, the MG151 and the Hispano MKII where too high, where as the ROFs of the MH81 7.92mm MG, MK108 30mm and Hispano MKV where too low.
In EAW infact, the Hispant MkII was better overall than the MkV...this is totally wrong!
The rate of fire problem goes both ways: some guns fire too fast, depleting ammo, while others fire too slow, causing fewer rounds to strike the target. ECA 1.4 uses the real muzzle velocities, so all your ammo is faster. This leads to far less "bullet drop", you shoot flatter, especially at longer ranges, and also means that you won't have to lead as much with deflection shots (this is especially useful when attacking enemy bombers). ECA 1.4 also employs the real rates of fire; stock EAW 1.2 has some weapons firing too fast (which allows you to put more rounds on target, but depletes ammo more quickly than it should), and others too slow (the opposite effect: now it's hard to get kills). ECA 1.4 rectifies this. The ECA Readme file includes information concerning how many seconds of firing time you have for each gun on each aircraft.
Also it was determined that certain weapons did not have any difference between them, for an example: in stock EAW the MG/FF (used on the Bf109E, Bf110C) and the MG/FF/M (used on Fw-190A4 and Ju-88C6) has the same muzzle velocity, (both had 1520FPS), whereas in real life there is quite a big difference. (1870FPS vs 2263FPS). As you can see this would have a very detrimental effect on the firepower of the Fw-190A4 or Ju-88C. Infact the MG/FF/Ms on these plane have almost the same MV as the MG151s! (2262 vs 2427)
There are many more examples of this that have been fixed by ECA1.4.
Bullet Trajectory; "stock" EAW will have greater trajectory loss than ECA. With ECA gun models, I don't think you'll notice much effect at ranges under 750 feet (unless you are flying something with MGFF or MGFF/M cannon). The most obvious times that trajectory effects due to velocity loss are noticeable are when you attack bombers. To see what I mean, try attacking some and open fire from about 2,000 feet back. See where your tracers go, and adjust your aim accordingly.

d) adds some new ordnance to the game (especially useful for the now-flyable bombers!)

e) increases the number of hitpoints required to destroy airplanes.

ECA Installed:
ECA doesn't really "run"; it's simply a set of add-on files that will be in your EAW directory (the folder titled "European Air War" in which eaw.exe is located). In the readme file for ECA it lists all the filenames for ECA. There is no verification procedure. It either works (if all the files exist in your EAW directory) or not. If ECA works, it is installed O.K.

ECA in Campaigns:
a) Start a new career.
When you begin a new career or Campaign, you have a choice as to which unit you wish to fly with. Keep rolling through them on the selection menu and you will eventually find an aircraft you are looking for. The new aircraft should be available in the historically relevant periods. Cycle through the available squadrons in a campaign by clicking on the squadron name.

For an Example, In the German 1940 campaign, there are 9 available squadrons. As you cycle through you will see in succession 3 BF109E squadrons (II/KG2, III/KG2 and II/JG26), then I/KG51 (Ju88A), another Bf109E squadron (II/JG51), then III/StG2 (Ju87), II/KG53 (He111), and finally II/ZG26 and EGr210 (both Bf110). Likewise for the B26 in the 1943 and 1944 U.S. campaigns, the Mosquito in the R.A.F. 1943 and 1944 campaigns, etc.

ECA and Online Multiplayer:
If you have ECA 1.4 installed, you could only play online ANYWHERE with somebody else who has ECA 1.4 (and only ECA 1.4---i.e., not ECA Control Panel) installed. That is because in EAW v1.2, there is a "file checker" which makes certain that everybody in an online game has the same set of flight data for all of their aircraft. That prevents cheating (creating airplanes that are virtually unbeatable). ECA modifies some of the flight and gun data to make them more realistic, and these changes are what the file checker looks for. Note: The most common add-on in the olden days was to use "ECA Online".
To fly offline then online, You need EITHER "ECA 1.4" or "ECA Control Panel". To fly 7 of the 10 originally non-flyable aircraft, you need "ECA 1.4". To be able to switch back and forth between flight models (such as ECA, ECA Online, "clean/stock" EAW, etc.) you need something like "Scorpion's ECA Enabler", "EAW Configurtion Manager (eawcm)", Dolfo's batch files, or something similar. The "Enabler" is good, but if all you want to do is switch back and forth between ECA and "stock" EAW (and possibly the 'ECA Online' FM's), then would only require something like "eawcm" or Dolfo's batch files. Basically all of these programs do the same thing; switch flight models.

About Single Mission and Bomber (Mosquito):
You will find you can no longer select the secondary aircraft (bombers) for an escort mission in....British fighters in a single mission.
This a quirk of using the EAW/ECA combination. In stock EAW, the only bomber available to the British for escort in Single Missions is the Mosquito. But in ECA, the Mosquito's designation has become a flyable fighter. Therefore, EAW no longer recognizes it as a bomber! The result: you can't escort it on an escort mission! Since it's the only British bomber in the game, that means no aircraft to escort as a British pilot! So it's just an inconvenience: it's the trade-off for being able to fly the Mosquito as a fighter-bomber, a side-effect of making the only British bomber in EAW into a fighter.
 

Bombers still get fighter sweeps in ECA, instead of Bomber missions....
Unfortunately, that's one of the limitations of ECA. You would need to change the mission structure but Microprose has not released the source code for EAW or anything like it that at the time these FM's where made.  As a result, it was impossible to introduce true bomber missions into the sim. The bombers will suffer from the difficulty of trying to fly bomber missions in a sim designed for fighter combat! The premature jettisoning of bombs and bombers turning back early seem to be manifestations of this. The same is true concerning the lack of fighter escort when you fly a bomber: they think you can take care of yourself (Your Bombers are truly viewed as fighters!). Remember EAW, like its competitors, was designed as a FIGHTER sim. All the missions are "fighter missions"----there really is nothing for bombers! There is currently nothing that can be done to change the missions.

There is currently no way to set up a campaign centered entirely on bomber or bomber-type missions. But you can minimize the number of "fighter-style" assignments and increase your attack missions by choosing your base campaign carefully. For instance, if you fly an Allied bomber (Mosquito or B-26), the 1944 Tempest campaigns are probably going to be a good choice. They will still have fighter sweeps and maybe an escort mission every now and then, but are heavy on airfield, radar station, etc. attacks and on interdiction missions (vs. mostly trains or half-track convoys). I think you have fewer good choices as a German pilot, but you might try Eprobungstaffel 210 in the Battle of Britain, which is supposed to have more fighter-bomber missions (I think). Charles Gunst has already done a great deal of this in the add-on campaigns that are part of ECA. But like I said, unfortunately, the fighter missions are one of the limitations that this great add-on (ECA) is forced to work under.
 

When Your Squad of Bombers drop their bombs before or shortly after take off:
It has something to do with EAW and unflyable planes, It's another side-effect caused by the basic fact that EAW is a single-seat fighter sim, and editing it to allow bombers to be flown is pushing it. If I hit the 'autopilot' key, your bombs will automatically drop. This seems unavoidable (as far as Charles Gunst has determined). But you can try the "Alt + N" method while you're still on the runway! Yes, this WILL eliminate the "thrill" of trying to coax a B-26 into the air off of a short runway, but it SHOULD get you and your squadron to the target area with all ordnance still on board. It will also prevent you from having to fly forever to get to the target!
 

Commanding Bomber Squad:
As far as commands go being the squadron CO allows you to give orders to the whole squadron. I would think that the best missions for bombers would be interdiction or other form of fighter-bomber missions since your designated target is already on the ground. That way, your AI mates should already be "locked" into that target. You would probably have to give them explicit orders to "target fighters" before they would go after enemy fighters. Unfortunately, this might not be an option on traditional fighter-type missions, since your AI pilots will likely be targeting enemy aircraft to begin with (there's no "target ground objects" command, just "attack ground targets") and there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to get them to change to a ground target!

Some more problems that can't be fixed with the EAW/ECA:
Most of the problems listed below are unavoidable (as far as Charles Gunst has determined).

-The STUKA. Aside from the missing dive brakes, this is the most workable of the new planes. The only issue with this one is the lack of escort. Since this plane replaced a 109 squadron, it is assumed as needing no escort. Thus the Stukas often do not get an escort, because EAW treats them as fighters, and fighters do not need one.
-With the Ju88 or the Heinkel-111 for an example, When the mission starts, note the position of my aircraft on the runway. This is important, because after takeoff, approximately 5 minutes into the flight, all the planes that were behind me on the flightline will dump their bombs into the trees and turn for home. Some will land back at the base, others will circle endlessly around the base. This happens every mission. And again, the jettisoning of bombs by the Ju88A and He111 is something a fighter would do (although interestingly, as an aside, fighters per se do not do it in combat - it must be related to the size of the bomb load).Hitting Alt-N should get you to the target with your bomb load - either shortly after take-off or on the runway.
-When you approach for landing with a Ju-88, as you get near the ground, the bomber will suddenly begin making pitching maneuvers towards the ground and back up again. This makes landing almost impossible. You usually will have to land on one wheel, and jam the stick in the opposite direction, and if your fast enough, the plane will slam down hard onto the ground and stick.

Enemy Coast Ahead Control Panel or ECAPanel: (ecapnl44.zip 238kb)
by Charles Gunst.
A nifty Windows based utility allows the player to choose different planes, variants and sub-variants. A companion program to ECA listed above. ECA Panel is an aircraft-swapping and squadron-editing program. Stock EAW has limit of 30 aircraft, 20 of which were originally flyable. With ECA (listed above), an additional 7 of the non-flyable aircraft are now flyable (although those are only available in campaigns). This ECAPANEL complements ECA by enabling easy swapping of hundreds aircraft flight models within the 30-aircraft limit. Older Versions: ecapnl11.zip 351Kb , ECAPNL20.ZIP 387KB, ecapnl32.zip 489kb , ecapnl33.zip , ecapnl34.zip, ecapnl35.zip , ecapnl36.zip 0.5MB , ecapnl37.zip , ecapnl40.zip , Ecapnl42.zip (v4.2 has Whirlwind fix)

ECAP Handles different aircraft settings:
It changes the names, flight models/damage models, armament, muzzle flash positions and ordnance loads of any aircraft you select. (what it does not do is load in the required skins(P****.TPCs) and the three dimensional models(P****.3DZ's), you do that manually or with a skin manager program.) Note: Every time the Panel is started, it automatically checks to see if the data in the Planes.dat and Flt files match what is showing in Panel's aircraft slots. If anything is different, Panel then rewrites the files to reflect the data in Panel.

Fly more than 300 different aircraft models in EAW. Now with Russian, French, Italian, Japanese and Pacific aircraft...Note: this changes the flight models, it improves the default planes so that the original over-modeling of Brit planes and under-modeling of US and Axis planes is reduced somewhat....it also adds the flight models of a huge range of new planes for the 'plane slots' in the original game...(it does not add the new 3Dz shapes or new skins for the new planes so you have to install those plane files separately), If you don't then the plane you set in ecapanel will 'look' the same as the stock plane occupying that slot in game, but will 'fly' like the new one...

ECA improved with ECA Panel:
When you add ECA Panel to ECA that's when things REALLY begin to take off. Panel lets you choose between flight models for over 200 different aircraft! ECA and ECA Panel do not include skins and shapes; you still have to load them separately (but that's not very hard). It is ECA Panel's ability to create so many different flight models that takes EAW into a whole new realm: brand new theaters like the Pacific, the Mediterranean, or Russia, and even lets you fly some of the lesser known aircraft. (It also lets you fly some of the variants of the main combatants in Europe---Need more punch for your Me109G to knock down those heavy bombers? Try ECA Panel's "Bf109G-10/R4", with three 30mm cannon---but beware of the loss in performance imposed by the gondola-mounted external cannon! You want to really go ship-hunting with a 57mm-armed Mosquito MkXVIII? It's in there! What about the twelve .50 calibers on the P-38L--try that out on enemy planes [!] or fourteen .50's on the A-26B Invader--for some real ground-pounding....Or maybe you would you like to see how the P-80 Shooting Star would have fared against the Me262? You can fly those planes, too!) Some more include the Ta183, also the Sturm versions of the Bf109 and Fw190. They have the under-wing cannon pods so commonly found on the intercept aircraft of WWII. Another addition is the Ju87G-1. This is the tank-buster. It has the two 37mm cannon pods under the wings and really kicks some Sherman butt!

Picking the Planes you have a choice. You can manually select the planes for the theater you want, or, in the drop down boxes on the menu list, you can select a era or theater and the changes will be made for you. But, the selection is not automatic...you must pick the planes/era/theater yourself.

In order to get all of these additional aircraft you must use this separate add-on. For instance, let's say you enjoy flying the workhorse of the Luftwaffe, the Me-109. But you find that the standard armament of one 20mm MG151 cannon and two 13mm MG131 machine guns of the stock 109G6 is not heavy enough to tackle the relentless waves of American daylight bombers. ECA Panel offers the ability to simply replace the G6 with, say, a 109G6/R6 with two extra 20mm cannon slung under the wings. Still not enough firepower for you? How about the 109G6/R4 with two extra MK 108 30mm cannon? It's only a mouse click away. The extra armament is not without it's price. Flight models reflect the extra drag and weight of these "gundolas" under the wings.

The following aircraft can replace the standard 109G6 alone: 109F4, 109F4/R1,109G2, 109G6/R4, 109G6/R6, the very fast 109G10 and the 109G10/R4. For Allied planes, there are 6 variants of the fabled Mustang and an unbelievable 12 different marks of the world famous Spitfire! In addition, ECA Panel, also allows the player to fly Russian planes like the MiG-3, Yak-3, Yak-9 and La-7. Japanese planes include the ultra-maneuverable A6M5" Zero", D3A2 "Val" and the G4M2 "Betty". Even Italian ships are there, among them the Fiat G.55 and the Macchi C.200. Unfortunately any of these variants will retain the shape of the plane it replaces. For instance, the Zero will appear as a FW-190. Add a Japanese skin, however, and it's not too hard to "see" it as a Zero.

These aircraft's ECA Control Panel "alter egos" (Mosquito/F7F Tigercat, Stuka/Val, B-26/A-26 Invader, He111/G4M2 Betty, Me410/J1N1 Gekko, etc.). These aircraft can only be flown in campaigns simply because the aircraft type were not originally flyable in stock EAW. The other aircraft can be use in single or campaign mode.

Saving your changes before exiting:
You will have to do that in order to make your changes permanent. Go to the File menu in the upper left corner of the window and click on it. Select Save. Then you can exit.

ECAPanel contains a changed PLANES.DAT Render Distance Mod:
Charles has manipulated the values so you can have better detail of the planes at longer distances...
Stock EAW has 4 different distances for drawing aircraft pictures, which are fixed in PLANES.DAT.
For the B26 the original stock figures are:
8400: Close picture (.tex skin)
25200: Medium picture (.tes skin)
75600: Far picture (tan color)*
226800: Dot distance (a speck)
The unit is, I think, 21 feet, so the close picture distance is 400 feet, the medium picture distance 1200 feet etc.

*The TAN color results from a color index defined inside the 3DZ file to paint the elements that make the shape at long distance. Only the medium and close shapes use textured polygons. This is independent of EAW slot used. So the long range distant colors are from the 3DZ model file, not the skin files, usually green or tan.

.TES Skins:
You do not need the *.tes files if you are playing with higher detail settings. "Experiments" show that the *.tes files are skins that are used only in low resolution and/or low detail settings - long range sights of the skins are included in the skins themselves! Another way to view the TES files without actually flying, is to set the Plane Detail to LOW, then goto the aircraft viewer in the plane data section. So making a .TES skin for a plane is a waste of time on modern computer systems that will always use the high detail setting.

Skins and Plane Shapes:
The Read Me file for ECA Control Panel clearly states that ECA CP only changes the flight models and the labels of the aircraft, NOT THE ARTWORK OR SHAPES of the planes. If you want different paint schemes or shapes, then you will indeed have to add skins yourself. It would be unrealistic to expect ECA CP to switch skins. There are way too many to choose from to satisfy everybody, not to mention the difficulty of trying to incorporate a substantial number into the program!

Other add-on managers let you have the proper aircraft skins and shapes to go with the flight models in ECA panel...EAW Stab can manage ECApanel for you...you do have to make one simple change: I'm not sure if the lastest STAB versions works properly, but you might have to open the older ECAmap file (in your ECAP folder) with notepad and change the line at the top from: VersionString=v4.3 to VersionString=v4.4  Otherwise STAB can't find the new ECAP files since it looks for the 4.3 versions. You will have to change it back to 4.3 if you decide to go back to what you had before.

ECAP and Incorrect Data Size On Plane.Dat:
This may come from running ECAPANEL.EXE in your EAW directory (the one with EAW.EXE in it) without ECAPANEL.DAT being there as well. The TXT file that comes with ECA Control Panel emphasizes that you MUST have both of these files in your EAW directory.

The reason is this. When it runs, ECAPANEL.EXE extracts PLANES.DAT (a file that MUST be 6484 bytes long, or you will get that error message) from ECAPANEL.DAT, but if ECAPANEL.DAT is not present it creates a file 6484 bytes in length in lieu, but one filled with zeros, not data. You may then get this error message. Check the PLANES.DAT file in your EAW directory. Is it filled simply with zeros?

Alternatively, your PLANES.DAT has simply been corrupted somehow.

The solution is simple, either way. Make sure both ECAPANEL.EXE and ECAPANEL.DAT are in your EAW directory, then run ECAPANEL in that directory. Hit "Reset" and exit, then try EAW. It should work fine.

Multiplayer and ECA/ECA Control Panel:
1. Everyone must have the same version of ECA Control Panel (the EXE file and the DAT file).
2. You must ensure that all aircraft choices are identical. I recommend using Reset and then changing manually, to a pre-agreed list.

The EAW built in file checker looks at the information for ALL 30 aircraft in EAW! If you are going to use ECA Control Panel online, every player involved in the game must have exactly the same data for ALL aircraft. In addition, ECA CP uses the ECA data for the 30 original aircraft. This data is different from the default stock EAW data. To use ECA Control Panel online, first you must be in a game in which ALL the other players must have ECA CP. Secondly, ALL of you must have the exact same panel configuration (all 30 aircraft must be set exactly the same on everybody's panel). The easiest way to do this is to go the "File" menu and select "Reset all data". All players in the game should do this. Then make sure EVERYBODY is clear on which aircraft are to be selected. After doing this, you SHOULD be able to make it work.

ECA Control Panel 2.0 does only two things, but they are pretty important!
a) ECA CP 2.0 let's you fly about 200 different models of aircraft! ECA incorporates a new ".flt" file (flight data) for each aircraft and also makes changes to the "Planes.dat" file (planes data). Control Panel 2.0 writes a new .flt file and changes the Planes.dat file for whatever aircraft you select to fly. This "new" plane occupies one of the slots allocated to a flyable version----you can still only have 30 aircraft in EAW (20 original, 7 flyable with ECA, plus the 4-engine bombers and the V-1). Some of these 200 aircraft are completely different, others are subvariants. This is especially true of the German fighters, which now have a myriad of armament choices. This is yet another reason to get Control Panel 2.0: So you can upgun your Luftwaffe aircraft for taking on American bombers!

Examples: The Me109K slot is used for five aircraft--------Me109K-4 (1 30mm cannon, 2 MG131 13mm machine guns), Me1009K-4/R4 (same armament, but with extra 2 MG151 20mm cannon under the wings), Me109K-6 (same armament as K-4/R4 but with 30mm cannon instead of 20's), Kawasaki Ki-64 (Japanese fighter), and Fiat G.55 (an Italian fighter).

The Me109G slot produces no less than ELEVEN planes!

The Spitfire MkIX is used for 7 airplanes: the basic Spit IX, 3 differently armed versions of the Spitfire MkV, and 3 different versions of the Russian Yak-9!

b) ECA CP 2.0 incorporates what is called the "Squadron Editor" function. This allows you to access the files for each of the careers you are running in EAW and edit the information in them. You can change your unit's aircraft, base, date of mission, etc. and you can change your squadron's pilots' names, ranks, fatigue and morale levels, status (you can "resurrect" KIA pilots, for instance), victory totals, etc. P.S. you can change your own info too!
You can also change whatever aircraft you are now flying in a campaign to any of the flyable models (including the new 7) with ECA Control Panel's "Squadron Editor" function. If you either don't have or don't want Control Panel but still want to be able to have the functions of the "Squadron Editor" you can download "EAW Pilot", which does the same thing. In fact, "EAW Pilot" is really what is incorporated in "ECA Control Panel" as the Squadron Editor.

Also includes the "Squadron Editor"
which allows you to change many things in offline career mode, so you can change the aircraft assigned to your squadron in campaigns, and refresh your squadron pilots, plus a feature to switch place names to different theatres, and more. Includes the option of changing all the names of the bases and targets to names found in different theaters. You can now have all the names in EAW reflect the Pacific, North Africa/the Mediterranean, and the Russian Front! Change your virtual pilot's name, the name and important information for every pilot in your unit (including his Morale and Fatigue levels, plus his status: Active, KIA, etc.!!!); or change your unit's base of operations or the type of aircraft you fly! (The "Squadron Editor" is also available as a "stand-alone" program separate from the ECA Control Panel-----this "stand-alone" program is called "EAWPilot".)

To access the "Squadron Editor", you first open "ECA Control Panel 2.0".
Here is my step-by-step approach:

Replace your squadron's aircraft in a current campaign with a new plane:
You can't start a career with one of the ECA planes, this is the case with most of the aircraft in ECA Control Panel.  [note: you must complete at least one mission in the campaign in order for EAW to save a career file. This establishes a career file that can be edited. If you do not complete the first mission, there will be no campaign!] Then use the "Squadron Editor" feature in ECA CP to switch your unit over to the plane of your choosing. You can also change the name of your unit, it's base, etc. using SE.

Here are some instructions on using the Squadron Editor:

1) First, open ECA Control Panel. Once you have Control Panel opened, you should see 4 entries across the top: "File", "Reset", "About", and "Squadron Editor". Click on "Squadron Editor".

2) Now the entire Panel should change as the "Squadron Editor" appears. At the top of it should be the following: "File" and "Aircraft Editor". If you click on "Aircraft Editor" you will be returned to the original Panel that came up. To change or view information in careers, such as to change your plane, you must click on "File".

3) A drop-down menu should appear. Then click on "Open" on this drop-down menu.

4) In the next box that appears, you should see "File Name" on the left, with "*.sve" underneath it. Below this will be a list of any careers that you are currently running. The bad news: EAW does not store career files with names like "Capt. John Doe, 4th Fighter Group". Instead your files will have names like "career00.sve", "career01.sve", etc.! The only way to know which one is what will be to actually open each one! To open one, you simply double click it. This should now give you all the pertinent information that you can change. Find the category that you wish to select, and click the little triangle to the right. A drop-down menu should appear, listing your new choices. Note that you can change the name of each pilot in your squadron (including your own) by text editing their entries!

***IMPORTANT***
Whatever changes you make will not be saved if you now click on the "x" in the upper right corner. To save your changes, YOU MUST GO BACK TO THE "FILE" MENU, AND CHOOSE "Save"!!! NOW you may exit!

Squadron Editor/Campaign Editor Uses:
-You can use it to change the fatigue and morale settings if it seems your pilots aren't getting enough rest. It tells you how many flyable planes are left and, if you keep track of each mission, you can see how your wingman did in the last mission. Iit makes you more aware of the squadron as a whole.
-To change the base at which your squadron is deployed. For instance, If you sometimes like to base the Staffel deep inside Germany in 1943. Especially careers in Zerstorers like the 410. The American daylight bombers come without escort, and it is fun to intercept them without any pesky fighters to worry about. That is until they show up in '44.
-To check fatigue from time to time. Then you know which pilots need a well deserved rest.
-To change the names of AI pilots in my squadron in the (relatively rare) cases when the computer generates a ridiculous-sounding, immersion-destroying one (I actually had a P/O Allen Allen once!), when several pilots have the same last name (two is OK, but 3 or more doesn't seem realistic in a squadron of only 12 pilots!), or when I just don't like the name!
-To set up a "special" squadron with custom names you pick for pilots. Running a campaign in which you replaced the original squadron name with a number that was not used and changed the pilots' names to those of your choice. (You will find that when you do this you may find it easier to really start paying attention to the fatigue/morale values for all the pilots and make a very strong effort to juggle who needs the most rest vs. the need for the mission to succeed) I've noticed some interesting things. One for instance: one of my pilots seems to tire VERY quickly (more than usual) when he flys a mission. But his morale drops heavily when he doesn't fly----more heavily than the other pilots when they don't fly!
-You may choose to just monitor fatigue/morale levels (without reduceing them) for your pilots when you are a squadron CO to see who needs rest.
-You may want to change bases and/or aircraft.
-Perhaps to revive KIA/MIA pilots when their losses occurred in some unrealistic manner (for instance, when flying a Mustang campaign in '44-'45, If you have been trying to build up medal points. After the "Mission Completed" message, I've found that if I order the rest of the squadron to go home, they all follow me wherever I go! This is not only annoying, but it's dangerous for me when I'm trying to set up a strafing run and I have 11 other airplanes in close proximity to me--the risk of collision is quite high! No matter what I order ["loiter here", "return to base", etc.] I can't get them to leave. So I make sure that I continually give the order to "attack bandits" periodically throughout the flight, thereby allowing myself to separate from the rest of the squadron. When the "Mission Accomplished" message comes through, I pause the game and check (F9) to see if each of my pilots is still there. If they are, then I figure that in real life I would've ordered them to join me, but when I go to attack a ground target they would respond accurately to the "loiter here" command [away from light AAA] when I start setting up my strafing attack. If any of them are lost on the way back, I use the Editor to revive them.).
-Monitoring other data. For this I use Nick Bell's DOS-based program, the EAW Career Editor. It provided the basis for making the Windows application, EAW Pilot/Squadron Editor. However, You will find that Nick Bell's DOS app offers more criteria concerning values for the pilots.
-You can even change the country designation to a Spit being German so gunners will not shoot you on take off/landing! Select the Spit in the squadron screen and fly a "captured" Spit vs RAF Spits!

Install Help:
To use ECA Panel 2.0 or the latest version you must also have Enemy Coast Ahead 1.4 or the latest version. (ECA 1.4 is about a 7.6MB download. If you already have an earlier edition of ECA, there is a much smaller [141Kb] ECA 1.4 Update you can download instead which will bring your earlier version up to 1.4 level). You have to install ECA 1.4 first, then install ECA Panel 2.0. Install them directly into you're eaw folder, such as:
C:\Program Files\MicroProse Software\European Air War
Then you're done. With eca2.0 control panel executable you will want to create a shortcut on your desktop. Locate the ecapanel icon in your eaw folder and (left click) drag to desktop. A shortcut will be created on your desktop. Then double click the shortcut to open up the panel and you'll see all the aircraft selections, etc.
The different cannon armament will not appear in your options in EAW, you will have to choose your particular plane in ECA Panel before you actually start EAW. Your choice will then be used by ALL of THAT TYPE of aircraft in your game (example: if you select Me109G-6/R6 in the Panel, then all the Me109G's in the game will be Me109G-6/R6's). If you want a different type of Me109G for your next game, you simply change the Me109G entry in ECA Panel to whatever you want prior to starting your next game.

More Install Help If all else fails:
Re-install or add a new separate EAW installation, and begin from scratch. Patch with the official MPS v1.2. After that, the order of installation is: ECA v.1.4 or latest version-> ECA Panel v.2.0 or latest version. (Remember, ECA can work by itself, but the ECA Control Panel needs ECA in order to function.)

The full list of aircraft available in ECA Control Panel v4.4 is as follows:

P38H:
P38 H, P38D,P38 F, Whirlwind Mk I, Mosquito VI, Beaufighter Mk IF, Meteor Mk III, Yak-4, Potez 631, Blenheim Mk IV 

P38J:
P38J, P38L, P38L1-LO, P61 Black Widow, F7F Tigercat, Fokker G1, Sukhoi Su-9, Breguet 693< Vampire FB Mk 5

P47C:
P47C, P47B, P43A Lancer, F6F-3 Hellcat, F6F-5 Hellcat, F4F-3 Wildcat, F4F-4 Wildcat, F2A-2 Buffalo, F3F-2, P47D-23, Sukhoi Su-2, SB2U Vindicator

P47D:
P47D, P47M, XP-72, P47N, F8F-1 Bearcat, TBF Avenger, SB2C Helldiver, Il-2m3 Stormovik, Hurricane Mk I, F-86A Sabre

P51B:
P51B, Mustang I, Mustang IA, A-36A Apache, F4U-4A Corsair, P40E Warhawk, P40N Warhawk, P39D Airacobra, TBD Devastator, SBD Dauntless, Fairey Battle Mk I, Fairey Swordfish, PZL P.23b, Yak-1

P51D:
P51D, P-82 Twin Mustang, P51H, F4U-1A, F4U-4C, F4U-5 and F2G Corsair, P63B Kingcobra, P80C Shooting Star, Fokker D-XXI

B26 :
B26B Marauder, A26B Invader, P61B Black Widow, Ilyushin Il-4, B25B Mitchell, B25J Mitchell, Boston III, PBY-5A Catalina, Amiot 354 B4, Blenheim Mk I, C47 Dakota

B17:
B17D, B17E, B17F, B17G, B29, Pe-8, G8N1 Rita, Fw 200 Condor

B24:
B24D, B24G, B24H, B24J, B24J (RAF), Lancaster Mk I, Halifax Mk III, Stirling Mk III, Leo 451

Hurricane:
Hurricane I, Hurricane IIb, Hurricane IIc, Hurricane IId, Hurricane IV, Polikarpov I-153, Polikarpov I-16, MiG-3, MiG-3T, Kittyhawk IA (P40E), Morane-Saulnier MS.406, PZL P.11c, CA-3 Wirraway

Spitfire I:
Spitfire I, Spitfire Ib, Spitfire IIa, Spitfire IIb, Spitfire Vb, Fulmar Mk II, LaGG-3, Dewoitine D.520, P39Q Airacobra, PZL P.24A, Gauntlet Mk II, Boomerang II

Spitfire IX:
Spitfire IX, Spitfire Va, Spitfire Vb, Spitfire Vc, Spitfire VIII, Spitfire XVI, Yak-7B, Yak-9D, Yak-9U, Yak-9P, Caudron C.714, Gladiator Mk I, PZL P.7c, Hudson MkIII, Ventura Mk I

Spitfire XIV:
Spitfire XIV, Spitfire XIVc, Spitfire XXI, Seafire Mk 47, Spitfire XII, Yak-3, Yak-3P, Yak-3M, Bloch MB 155, Polikarpov I-15, Polikarpov I-152, Mustang IV

Typhoon:
Typhoon Ib, Typhoon Ia, Defiant Mk I, Tomahawk Mk IA (P40B), Lavochkin La-5, Lavochkin La-5FN, Curtiss Hawk 75A, A-35B Vengeance, Hawker Fury II

Tempest:
Tempest V, Tempest VI, Tempest I, Skua Mk II, Kittyhawk Mk IA (P40E), Sea Fury Mk 10, Lavochkin La-7, Lavochkin La-11, Bloch MB 152, Boeing P-26A

Mosquito:
Mosquito VI, Mosquito IV, Beaufort Mk I, Hornet Mk3, Beaufighter Mk IF,Petlyakov Pe-2, Petlyakov Pe-3, Potez 630, Potez 631, PZL P.37B Elk, Wellington Mk I, Tupolev SB-2

Bf109E:
Bf109E3, Bf109B2, Bf109E1, Bf109E4, Bf109E8, Bf109F2, Ki-43 Oscar, Ki-27 Nate, Macchi C.202, He112B1, He162A2, Bf109Z1, F2A-1 Buffalo

Bf109G :
Bf109F4, Bf109F4/R1, Bf109G6, Bf109G2, Bf109G6/R6, Bf109G10, Bf109G10/R4, Ki-61-Ia Tony, Ki-61-Ib Tony, Ki-61-II Tony, Macchi C.205 V, Fiat G.50bis, Dewoitine D.520 (Vichy), Hs 123 A1, Go229A1

Bf109K:
Bf109K4, Bf109K6, Bf109G14, Me163B1, Ta183A1, Ki-44 Tojo, N1K1 Rex, N1K2 George, Ki-200, Fiat G.55, Ju87B2, Ju87G1, He51B1, MiG-15

Bf110C:
Bf110C4, Bf110F1, Bf110F4, Bf110F4a, Ta154A1, Ar 234B2, Ar 234B6, He219A7, Ki-45 Nick, Fl-282, F1M2 Pete

Bf110G:
Bf110G2, Bf110G4, Bf110G4/R4, Me410A2, Me410B6, Ju88G7, Ki-46 Dinah, Ki-96 Toryu, Meridionali Ro58, Me210A1

Me410:
Me410A2, Me210A1, Me410A1, Me410B2/R5, Me410B2/U2, Me410B2/U4, Me410B6, Hs 129 B2/R2, J1N1-S Gekko, Ki-102 Randy

Fw190A:
Fw190A1, Fw190A4, Fw190A6, Fw190A8, Fw190A8/R1, Fw190A8/R2 Fw190A8/R3, Fw190F8, A6M2 Zero, A6M5 Zero, J2M3 Jack, Macchi C.200, Reggiane Re.2000, IAR-80b, Fw190TL

Fw190D:
Fw190D9, Fw190D11, Fw190D13, Ta152C2, Ta152H1, Do335A1, Do335B1, A5M4 Claude, Ki-84 Frank, Ki-100, A6M2 Rufe, J7W1 Shinden, Fiat CR-32, Fiat CR-42

Me262:
Me262A1, Me262A1/U1, Me262A1/U4, Me262A2, Me262A2/U1, Me262B1/U1, Nakajima J9N1 Kikka, Nakajima J9N3 Kikka, Ki-201 Karyu

Ju88A:
Ju88A4, Ju88A13, Ju88S2, Do17Z2, Do217J2, Ki-21 Sally, Ki-49 Helen, P1Y1 Frances, Q1W1 Lorna, Fiat BR.20M Cicogna

Ju88C:
Ju88C6, Ju88G7, Ju88R2, He219A7, Do17Z, Ki-48 Lily, P1Y2-S Kyokko, SM.81, Ju287

Ju87:
Ju87B, Ju87D, Ju87G, Fw190F8, D3A2 Val, B5N2 Kate, B6N2 Jill, B7A2 Grace, E13A Jake, Breda Ba 65

He111:
He111H2, Ju52/3m, Me323V1, G4M2 Betty, G4M3 Betty, Ki67 Peggy, H6K4 Mavis, SM-79bis

V1:
V1, Okha, Kamikaze Zero, Kamikaze Val
 

ECA Online or ECAO: (ecao14.zip 19kb)
by JG300x_Wurger aka Hakan Langebro and Charles Gunst.
So you want realism? Try this. Applies new realistic flight models and gun position corrections (for online use). The ECAOnline was a try to get standard FMs that all should be used for all online pilots. Designed by an actual aerospace engineer who is also a pilot, it is a separate version from ECA, it changes the flight models even further than ECA did! In ECAO you have exactly the same amount of aircraft as in the patched EAW v1.2 with the following exception; The Fw190-A8 that is normally found in the regular EAW 1.2 has been changed so that it is the more nimble FW190-A4 version. The A8 was predominantly used for Bomber Intercepts, but it lacked the maneuverability to dog fight. The A4 however was Germany's premier Focke Wulf dogfighter capable of going Head to Head with the fabled Spit IXC. Old Versions: ecaonl121.zip 19kb

Newly Created Flight Models for ECAO:

Hakan Langebro (10-31-1999) has created new flight models for Gunst:
We are together putting up a website for the ECA's and the new "ECA ONLINE" which is a new version with the new flight models. The ECA ONLINE is going to be a slimmed down version with only the necessary files for flying online. I am currently beta testing the aircraft and working on the website. All the aircraft performance are based upon real flight test data and flight test reports that I have been able to dig up. I work as an aerospace engineer and fortunately I have access to alot of reports like these! The ECA ONLINE will be created for online use and when all players have that add-on (and no other gun patch etc) the players will be compatible. I have tested several models together with my beta testers online and it works just fine, but the trick is that all players will have to use only this add-on to play. So look out, it will soon be ready. Both Charles and I are busy professionals that are doing this on our spare time, so please be patient 
The website will show the difference in between the aircraft, such as roll rates at different speeds, turn rate and turn radius, top speeds at sea level and at ceiling and best altitude etc. Altogether it is a very complete package and I have done alot of research to make it as realistic as possible. I hope you all will use it and enjoy it online when we release it!!

Completed First Version of ECAO:

Hakan Langebro (11-08-1999) Welcome! Charles Gunst and myself, Hakan Langebro, have finally completed ECA ONLINE with brand new flight models. All the flight characteristics changes are explained in detail on our website. It is an online game only, but you can use the files for your regular ECA if you want. I did the flight models and Charles did the weapons.

Beta Testing of ECAO:

Hakan Langebro (??-??-1999)Greetings gentlemen!!! I am glad you like it. Needless to say, I have devoted the past couple of months (ask my girlfriend....)to this task and so far from the people that Beta tested the models and from the feedback I've got, everybody seems to be very pleased with it!! I think Charles will update coming versions of ECA (offline) with these models and whenever I find data on the rest of the aircraft in the game I will change them too. I will not change any aircraft unless I have sufficient information to base the changes upon, that would be cheating!! :)
Charles is working on ECA v1.5 which I believe will include some new aircraft (cant tell which ones....).
Anyway, enjoy and I'll see you all online!
Charles (12-15-1999) I am thinking about putting the ECA Online flight models into ECA Control Panel, but it will be a big job, because every aircraft (150+) in ECAPANEL starts from the base flight model, and then has changes made to it 'on the fly'. Thus, changing the base flight model involves checking every other flight model for consequential changes.

ECAO v1.2:

Hakan Langebro (12-13-1999) I didn't do any changes on the Spits this time in v1.2. I feel they are quite accurate, but most people flying them think that I have decimated them.....I can see this happen when you are used to fly the EAW version, but the version in ECAONLINE has the same turn radius but different roll rates and stick sensitivity. I felt, from a real pilots point of view, that no aircraft will fly when you yank the stick all the way back in a sharp turn, it will undoubtedly stall. The Spit had a very small margin of stability, which means that it doesn't take much to make it react to control inputs. 
Personally, I think that most aircraft in the game are quite accurate at this time. I am still trying to figure out some of the "unknown" parameters in the code...but it is very tough.... I hope you guys enjoy it!!

V1.3 of ECA Online is finally released:

It took us 4 months and 7 BETA's to finally reach our goals to make this the most historically and technically accurate add-on to EAW.

FM's are super-realistic in terms of performance. The flight models were developed, tested, tweaked, tested again, tweaked again, etc., for 4 months by the creator of ECAO and a myriad of beta testers, all in an effort to get the flight models as close to the real-world flight data for these aircraft as possible. The result is (IMHO) the most well-researched, historically accurate, balanced set of flight models yet produced for EAW. 

Due to the nature of the EAW code, not ALL the parameters can be met but this is as close as I think can be achieved to actual best known aircraft performance. The speeds at sea level and best altitude should be very close as well as climb rates. The Spitfires were used as baseline for turn capability and all the other aircraft were adjusted accordingly. ALL the planes are modeled with their equivalent of WEP with nearly the same time limit for overheat.

There are certain things that the EAW code will not do. For example, the performance for the Mustang could not be totally correctly modeled as the power curve allowed by the EAW code is linear. The center of gravity shift as fuel is consumed from the inboard forward tanks is not modeled either. They did try and get the over all weights, initial climb rates and speeds at various altitudes correct, though. There are other slight problems as well with planes such as the Tempest not exhibiting enough speed bleed when turning or the tendency of that plane's aerilons to "grab" at stall threshold in a banked turn. He did a pretty good job of that with the FW190a4, Dora9, and Spits, though.

He found that when you tweak the parameter of one plane it would change the performance of another and that's why this mod has to be a stand alone to be properly "calibrated". If you "mix and match" flight model sets, the baseline reference gets thrown out the window. Its a pretty simple thing to understand. The integrity of a set of FMs can be corrupted....

ECAOL v1.3 is really a work of art right now. The recent scrutiny of the FM code values have found a couple of mistakes (Spitfire Ia guns and "engine bug") which means there will have to be a supplemental release.

Hakan has squeezed out so many details and nuances from a limited code with truly masterful results. Don't dismiss ECAOL1.3 without fully and objectively evaluating it. 

I have released v1.31 of ECAO:

The incorrect muzzle velocities of Spit 1, 14 and FW190A4 have been corrected, however, I dont have a fix for the engine bug. The engine bug itself is nothing else than a damage to the engine without any smoke. Some people may argue this to death and treat it the way they want, but if that is the only issue for not using ECAO 1.31, well, then I cant help you...I read a comment here on the Forum regarding the Typhoon being under modeled in turns. All numbers match however: climb, Sea level speed, best altitude speed, roll rates etc....That lack of turn would be very easy to fix by adjusting the pitch sensitivity in the .flt file.

Note Joystick Settings used for ECAO Testing:

Hakan Langebro used these settings when designing the ECAO flight models. He uses a Sidewinder FF Pro and uses a Deadzone of 10 (you can use what you want), with both joystick sensitivity (1.5) and force feedback "maxed out". Use Flight Sensitivity 1.5 to get the best performance from the Flight models!

The last version of ECAO v1.4:

by Hakan Langebro and Charles Gunst
teamed up to create the most accurate flight models for all the original stock planes in EAW. The package is called Enemy Coast Ahead Online 1.4. The install for ECAO is very easy to install, read the included read-me text file for instructions.
Procedures for making ECA ONLINE work:
1. Start from scratch. Re-install EAW on your hard drive, or install a second version.
2. Install the EAW 1.2 patch.
3. Install ECA ONLINE. Extract the zip file to you EAW folder.
4. Do not use any other add-ons, i.e. gun patches etc. Sound packs are ok. Now you are ready to play!

Manager Programs with ECA Online:

You can switch ECA Online on and off easily with the eawcm1.11 manager. This should allow you to switch easily back and forth between ECA Online and "regular" EAW. As another option, you can download the "Enabler/Disabler". A great tutorial on how to install it can be found here: Zemkes_Wolfpack website. This "Enabler/Disabler" should allow you to switch between up to four versions of EAW (!) at the click of a mouse button!

The file checker in EAW v1.2 makes it difficult (not impossible, just difficult) to use Enemy Coast Ahead for on-line play. It's even harder with ECA Panel (in fact, ECA Panel is what the primary problems stem from. There's nothing wrong with ECA Panel-----hopefully the following will explain more without being too confusing to you--it's certainly confusing to me!!). v1.2 requires ALL players in a game to have EXACTLY the same flight data or else the game will not launch. Anytime you open ECA Panel and then start an EAW game, ECA Panel writes files in your EAW Folder which will cause EAW to use whatever aircraft are showing in ECA Panel (for instance, if you last used ECA Panel to fly a German mission in 1942, you might have set all the aircraft on both sides to the ones that were available in that time period). If you try to play (on-line) with somebody whose last game was with EVEN ONE DIFFERENT flight model, your game will not launch! In order to play with someone who has ECA Panel installed, you will both have to reset your ECA Panels to ALL the same aircraft! Trying to get everything straight is a headache with two people, and sometimes seemingly impossible with 4 or more.

Charles Gunst's Enemy Coast Ahead makes changes even to the flight and weapons models of the aircraft in the original game (ex. the Spitfire MkIX in ECA has some changes compared to the Spitfire MkIX in the original EAW). These changes make the aircraft in ECA closer to the "real" aircraft than the models in the (original) EAW. This is especially true for the guns carried on the aircraft: the original EAW has muzzle velocities that are way too low and rates of fire that are incorrect, for instance.

Now, as for ECA Online, as I understand this, Hakan Langebro, an aeronautical engineer, was displeased with the flight models in the original EAW and modified them to closer reflect reality. He collaborated with Charles Gunst on some things and produced ECA Online. The name stems from the fact that the flight models are different (like Enemy Coast Ahead) but ECA Online does not have the myriad of aircraft flight models and data that you would get with a combination of Enemy Coast Ahead and ECA Panel. This means that if you want to fly online and use flight models that are more realistic than the ones in the original EAW, ECA Online allows you to do it while making it much easier to pass the "v1.2 File Checker Test". ECA Online is simply a collection of files in your EAW Folder. It makes no difference whether you are online (playing over the Internet) or playing off-line. The files stay the same.

a) ECA CP overwrites all existing .flt files and the planes.dat file with data corresponding to the aircraft that are showing in the 30 selection slots.

b) ECA CP checks the .flt and .dat files and compares the data to data for the aircraft showing in the 30 selection slots, then overwrites any files that do not conform to the ECA CP data.

As you can see, the result will be the same: when you open ECA Control Panel, you will wind up with ECA flight models, no matter what you currently have in the EAW directory.

ECA Online, of course, does not automatically do this; to replace existing flight models with ECAO ones, you must unzip or copy the ECAO flight models into the EAW directory yourself.

ECAO and Multiplay:

ECA Online also uses a completely different set of flight models from "regular" stock EAW 1.2. In fact, ECAO has a different set of flight models from ECA!  However, things are much less confusing to set up. This is because there is only one set of flight models for each of the versions of ECAO. The last version of ECAO is 1.4. If you are going to fly online with ECAO, you must first make sure everybody in the game has ECAO 1.4. You obviously must also have ECAO 1.4. That ensures that everybody has the same flight data. Again, if only one person is flying "regular" EAW 1.2 or is using ECA Control Panel, then the game will not launch.

Summary of the aircraft used in ECA Online v1.4:

The performance numbers of the aircraft in ECAO are within +/- 2-3%.

All aircraft have received a number of changes to match known data, i.e. test reports or Manufacturers data.

The aircraft in EAW v1.2 have a number of errors. Most of them are related to:

1. Speeds at Sea Level

2. Max Speeds at Best altitude

3. Roll rates

4. Climb rates

5. Turn performance

In an effort to correct these errors, the following aircraft were selected to modify since they represent the majority of the aircraft flown Online at The Zone or Kali.

ECA-Online v1.4 have all these changes implemented.

U.S. AIR FORCE

The P-51 will always be remembered as the fighter that won the air war in Europe. The P-51 doesn't have as much punch as the P-47 and isn't as rugged; however, it's both substantially faster and more maneuverable. The P-51 was a decent jet-killer, having downed Me-262s in Europe and even a MiG-15 in Korea.

Unmatched in terms of speed and combat radius, the P-51 can escort bombers all the way to Berlin. Without drop tanks, the P-51 is reasonably maneuverable, especially at higher speeds. It bleeds speed pretty quickly in a turning fight, so it should be used primarily in the hit-and-run role, saving its turning capability to finish off the adversary at the end of a fight. The P-51D packs a little more punch, carrying six .50 cal guns compared to the P-51B's four. Additionally, and possibly more important, the P-51D features a "bubble canopy," greatly increasing rear visibility.

Although overshadowed in the annals of history by the P-51, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as the "Jug," proved itself time and again in all theaters of action. The P-47 was built in larger numbers than any other US fighter in history. From 1942 until the introduction of the P-51, the P-47 was the US Army's workhorse, performing both air-to-air and air-to-ground sorties.

The Jug suffers two primary disadvantages. First, its mediocre range limits its effectiveness as a bomber escort. Late-model P-47Ds, though, can carry three external fuel tanks, allowing it to escort bombers fairly deep into Germany. The P-47 can absorb an unbelievable amount of damage. By mid-1943, everyone had come to respect the P-47's ability to bring its pilot home safely. Second, with eight .50 cal guns, the P-47 packs quite a punch. Third, and finally, the P-47 can dive away from any Luftwaffe opponent. It's perfectly suited for hit-and-run tactics from high-altitude.

The P-38 earned a reputation as a mediocre aircraft in the ETO, a label which has been attributed to several causes including cold weather operations, high-altitude icing, and even low-octane fuel. It excelled, however, in the PTO's warmer weather, where the P-38 generally operated at lower altitudes. The P-38 served as the Allies' primary long-ranged escort fighter until the introduction of the P-51.

The counter-rotating propellers negate engine torque, making for a very stable, easy-to-fly aircraft. Losing an engine, however, results in an amazing amount of torque and makes the aircraft extremely difficult to fly. Fortunately, pilots reported that the aircraft exhibited no substantial problems either turning toward or away from a dead engine. Further, the P-38 is, quite simply, too fast for its own good. In a dive, it can reach very high speed very quickly, resulting in an uncontrollable nose-down attitude. The P-38J features electrically-actuated "dive flaps" (which helps slow the aircraft) and hydraulically-boosted controls (which gives the pilot more control).

The P-38 is a decent dogfighter, and ETO pilots reported it could out maneuver any Luftwaffe fighter between 18,000 and 31,000 feet, and hold its own against lower-altitude opponents. Some pilot accounts mention dropping the maneuvering flaps to improve instantaneous turn performance, although other combat vets seemed to shun the idea since it increases drag. Although the pilot must be careful to control speed during a dive, the P-38 is generally fast enough to get itself out of trouble. It carries a respectable, nose-mounted armament. The centerline weapons configuration concentrates the firepower on a single point regardless of range, unlike fighters with wing-mounted guns (which converge at a range somewhere between 100 and 200 yards).

Royal Air Force

The Spitfire was conceived about the time that the importance of speed and climb rate was being discovered. Subsequently, the early Spitfires were rather slow with poor climb rates, but (being very light weight) possessed excellent turn performance.

The Spitfire Ia and the early Bf109 are well-matched, with the 109 being slightly faster in level flight and accelerating quicker in a dive. At slow speeds, however, the Spitfire is much more maneuverable than the 109. The Spitfire Ia suffers at high altitude, however, with the Bf109E clearly superior above 20,000 feet. The Spitfire Ia is under armed; its light punch can't guarantee lethality against targets with self-sealing fuel tanks (such as the He111 bomber). Further, the Spitfire Ia's carbureted engine will cut out under negative G, something the fuel-injected Bf109 doesn't have to worry about. The Spitfire Ia must watch out for high-speed bandits diving from above, and generally needs to sucker the opponent into a low-speed turning fight.

Turn performance is good, but being slower meant that the enemy could generally dictate the terms of the fight, disengaging at will. Subsequently, later Spitfires added emphasis on speed. The Spitfire IX is generally 20% faster at all altitudes, accelerates better, and climbs faster than earlier variants. It can still dominate the low-speed turning fight against a 109, but also has the option of diving away and escaping a battle. Lastly, the Spitfire IX packs more punch, carrying two 20mm cannons and four .303cal machine guns.

Faster German planes, like the Fw190, again called for a faster Spitfire. The Spitfire XIV, weighing some 8,400 pounds compared to the Spitfire Ia's 5,700, is substantially faster than the IX, performing better at all altitudes. The XIV can meet any Luftwaffe fighter on equal terms with the exception of the significantly-faster Me262 jet.

With over 15,000 Hurricanes built, the aircraft served on virtually every front; even remaining in front-line service as a ground-attack aircraft well after production ended. During the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane downed more Luftwaffe aircraft than any other aircraft type, accruing over 1,500 confirmed victories.

Despite its record, the Hurricane is slow, under-powered, maneuvers poorly, and lacks acceleration. The early Bf109s and Bf110s had little problem contending with the Hurricane. During the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane's main advantage came from fighting over friendly territory against opponents operating at the very edge of their combat range. On the average, though, the Hurricane was outclassed by most of its air-to-air opponents.

The Hurricane is a relatively stable aircraft and generally less difficult to fly than the Spitfire. The Hurricane reaches maximum power between 16,000 to 18,000 feet, but performance falls off sharply above 18,000 feet. Typically, the Hurricane should engage inbound bombers while Spitfires engage the escorting Bf109s.

A fairly mediocre air-to-air fighter, the Typhoon found fame as an excellent rocket-firing, ground-attack aircraft. It enjoys excellent low-altitude performance. Well-armored, it can sustain a lot of damage. Its firepower has been compared to a broadside volley from a cruiser and is sufficient to penetrate the most heavily-armored tanks. Don't intentionally take the Typhoon into air-to-air combat. It's outclassed by all of the later Luftwaffe fighters. The Typhoon has an inferior climb rate with unsatisfactory high-altitude performance.

The Typhoon accelerates well in a dive, reaching speeds around 500 mph, and subsequently suffering from compressibility problems as the local airflow over the wing approached the speed of sound. Like the P-38, Typhoon pilots need to closely monitor their speed in a dive.

A fighter-bomber development from the Typhoon, the Tempest first saw action in early 1944. As with the Typhoon, the Tempest shouldn't go looking for air-to-air combat, but can reasonably defend itself should air-to-air combat come looking for it. Remember to drop any external stores to reduce weight and drag before entering an aerial battle.

Used mainly for ground attack, the Tempest is a very fast aircraft, making it an excellent interceptor against V-1s. Tempest pilots also claimed 20 Me262 kills in the waning months of the war; since the Tempest isn't nearly as fast as the German jet, it seems probable that most of the jets were caught at slow speed during takeoffs or landings.

LUFTWAFFE

In the late 1930s the Luftwaffe began looking for a replacement for the Bf109 series. The Fw190A series was arguably the best fighter in the Luftwaffe inventory in the early 1940s and considered by some to have been the best fighter in the world at that time, earning the name "Butcher Bird." The Fw190A quickly established dominance over its main adversary, the slower Spitfire Vb, not by out-turning the nimble RAF aircraft, but by outrunning it.

The Fw190A4's main advantages are speed, roll rate and firepower, although it suffered a serious performance degradation above 15,000 feet. The later Fw190D9 model featured an improved power plant that boosted both top speed and high-altitude performance. Generally, keep the 190 fast and execute hit-and-run tactics. Typical opponents, especially those at an energy disadvantage, cannot keep up with or climb with a well-flown Fw190. On the defensive, the Fw190 should utilize its high roll rate to maneuver out of plane from the attacker. Quickly roll the aircraft 90 to 270 degrees, pull back on the stick, and dive away from the adversary. The 190 can't turn with most adversaries, but it can more than hold its own against the Spitfire simply by keeping its energy state high and staying out of the Spitfire's reach. Don't waste energy, however. The 190 is no match for the Spitfire in the low-speed turning fight.

The Bf.109 was the Luftwaffe's benchmark fighter throughout WWII. It first flew in 1937, saw combat during the Spanish Civil War, and some variants remained in service until the end of the war in 1945.

With a skilled pilot at the controls, the Bf.109 is a deadly adversary and can hold its own in most situations. It has good acceleration in a dive, but is somewhat slower than American contemporaries. Early model 109's are slightly faster than early model Spitfires. During the Battle of Britain, Luftwaffe pilots often escaped enemy Spitfires by pushing negative G and diving away. The early-model Spitfire's carburetor-fed engines will cut out under negative G; the 109's fuel-injected engines will not.

The 109 has an excellent climb rate, and a "climbing spiral" turn can sometimes be used to lure unwary opponents into a stall. With reasonable turning performance, the 109 can hold its own in a dogfight, assuming the pilot practices careful energy management. The Bf.109E-4 clearly outperformed the Spitfire I above 20,000 feet. At lower altitudes, the Spitfire (especially later models) will usually best a 109 in a sustained turning fight. The Bf.109E-4 is the lightest and best turning of the 109 variants. The G-6 carries substantially more firepower, but sacrificed turn performance for a more powerful engine. The K-4 has the largest engine of the group, but about the same weight as the G6 and about the same turn performance.

Arguably, the Me262 left behind the greatest legacy of any WWII-era aircraft: the Jet Age. Entering combat in 1944, the Me262 could outrun anything in the Allied inventory, including the mighty P-51 Mustang. Unfortunately for the Luftwaffe, it was too little, too late.

The Me262A has one primary advantage: speed. It's not very maneuverable at slow speed and suffers from rather poor acceleration, making it extremely vulnerable during takeoffs and landings. In fact, by the end of the war, the Luftwaffe positioned Fw190s and Bf109s over Me262 bases for protection. The Me262 pilot must climb to altitude and accelerate well outside of the combat arena. In combat, the Me262 must perform hit-and-run attacks, taking a snapshot, then extending away from the target and repositioning for a new attack.

Naturally, flying 500 mph. reduces the length of each attack run. Consequently, there's less time to aim the guns before the jet goes screaming past the target. The pilot must resist the urge to turn with his opponent; turning quickly bleeds speed, leaving the Me262 a sitting duck for the target's wingman. Flying the Me262 takes great discipline, great patience, and great aim. It takes a lot of practice to become proficient with the Me262.

Procedures for making ECA ONLINE work:

1. Start from scratch. Re-install EAW on your hard drive, or install a second version.
2. Install the EAW 1.2 patch.
3. Install ECA ONLINE. Extract the zip file to you EAW folder.
4. Do not use any other add-ons, i.e. gun patches etc. Sound packs are ok.
Now you are ready to play!

***Also, check out Philip Pilgrim's Help instructions below for installing the EAW Configuration Manager made by Johannes Schweidler if you want to use that with ECAO.

ECAOnline Add-On Support Instructions
by JG300x_Philip (Philip Pilgrim)

Answers:
ECA 1.21 is a very small add-on for the Microprose game European Air War. (zipped file is only 40k!!) It corrects the flight models and gun models of the planes. They are now more realistic and fun! (i.e.: P51's stall less, FW's roll faster ...etc.)

A small application called Configuration Manager created by Johannes Schweidler that lets you switch between regular old EAW v1.2 and ECAO with just a button click.

This ECAO "upgrade" does not overwrite any files, nor cause your current EAW installation to become corrupted. ECAO was created by Hakan Langebro and Charles Gunst. Hakan is an aerospace engineer and Charles is a lawyer with a strong interest in WWII airplanes and software "exploring".

How to Install:

1. Download this file: ECA_Online and the Control Manager if not included.
2. Extract it into your European Air War directory.
3. Click on the eawcm.exe file to activate the configuration manager.
4. Click on the middle button: ECAOnline. (note: You must click on this button the first time you install ECAOnline).
5. Run European Air War and enjoy!

Suggestions:

1. ECAO has more sensitive flight models. It is strongly recommended that you set your joystick sensitivity lower so that more joystick travel can be used. For example, my joystick sensitivity was 1.1 in EAW but I find 0.75 works better in ECAOnline. (important note: the planes may seem to stall easier if the joystick sensitivity is not lowered, however once you set the sensitivity correctly, you will quickly find the new flight dynamics to be a joy to fly.)

2. Once you have ECAOnline installed, test it off-line first. Try your first game flying your favorite plane. Get the feel of it's increased sensitivity and new abilities. Adjust your joystick sensitivity as needed. Also test the Configuration Manager to switch between EAW 1.2 and ECA Online. You will quickly notice how fast and easy it is to switch between both, if need be..

3. When hosting a European Air War game on the net with others, be sure to let everyone know that you are configured to ECA Online. (as you may know, all players must have the same configuration before the game will launch)

Troubleshooting:

1. EAWCM.EXE is a Visual Basic Program that assumes certain Visual Basic .DLL support files are in your windows/system directory. Sometimes these files are not on your hard drive. If so, attempting to launch EAWCM.EXE will cause a windows error xxxxx.DLL not found. You can download the typically missing file Msvbvm50.DLL. Simply save it in your windows/system directory.

Enemy Coast Ahead - ONLINE Background from the Author:

While trying out different WWII Sims I found a lot of discrepancies in the flight models. I decided to do my own research and re-evaluate the data provided by the software programmers. European Air War is the game that I have focused on since I believe it has the most potential to be altered and plus the fact that I like the game layout. I am now associated with Charles Gunst, and together we have created the ECA ONLINE module which will make online gaming possible.

Bare in mind that Microprose most probably will not release any more official updates or upgrades of European Air War.

We have designed this particular Module for ONLINE use in mind. (For you Gamers that fly offline you are welcome to use the standard ECA from Charles Gunst). Allot of people fly EAW online, me included, and I feel this is the right thing to do. Many people are asking questions about the aircraft in the game and I decided that I would clarify the individual performance and characteristics of the aircraft used. I have spent many hours of research and studied the aircraft until I knew enough to do the changes. (Please check my list of my research references below). Charles has spent a great deal of time finding out about the weapons used in the game and all of his findings have been incorporated in: ECA ONLINE.

With the official v1.2 patch in EAW, the new file checker prevents starting of the game if the .FLT and .DAT files are different from each player. So ECA ONLINE can be used as it's a slimmed down package of the standard ECA for use online. When all users in the game have this package everybody will be able to play because the file checker in EAW will agree.

Many of the aircraft in the original EAW are modeled very poorly. I have done some substantial research using WARTIME reports, NACA/NASA reports and other sources listed at the end of this page. The final result of this research is that the aircraft that I have modified now have the correct flight characteristics. The comparison charts are listed in the links below and you can clearly see how they all compare in different flight situations: stall speeds, stall characteristics etc.

Most interesting to see is the variation in rolling velocity, climb rate and turn performance, since these are of essential importance for air combat. For those of you who are interested, my background is as an Aerospace Engineer and I have worked for several different aircraft companies and projects, ranging from small 1 and 2 seaters to helicopters and airliners.

 

I fly online with my Squadron JG300x and my call sign is JG300x_Wurger.

I have been a pilot for 10 years and I designed my own aircraft in 1992 and I did most of the flight test program myself. I own a Piper Comanche 180 since 1998. I learned a lot from doing this research and it has been fun even though it became more of a major undertaking than I ever thought it would be. It all started with allot of frustration with the aircraft in EAW, which in turn led to my research. Some of the aircraft have been modified quite substantially and others not as much, depending on their characteristics. My goal has been to modify the aircraft to match the real flight characteristics as far as possible. Needless to say, it is very hard to understand the parameters of the code, but I think the final result of this exercise came out to be very good. This is my first attempt on building a website, so please be patient, updates will follow! Please e-mail me, Hakan Langebro, on questions of the aircraft and performance.


Special thanks to Charles Gunst and Paulo Morais for being able to decode and find out what's behind the files on EAW
and for Jeroen van Soest for designing the EAWAircraftEdit, which made it possible for me to do my work!

EAW RIP 1.2: (EAWRIP12.zip or EAWRIP1.2.zip 541kb)
by Jim "Wolf" Farmer.
RIP (Realistic In Performance). This was not created by modifying the flight models of the aircraft. Instead it was created by correcting other aspects of the aircrafts (weight, wing loading, fuel, top speed, etc etc.) performance features that have a direct bearing on how the airplanes actually perform. You have the exact same aircraft from EAW 1.2 just that they have been tweaked to reflect the correct configuration for each airframes capabilities. You will be pleasantly surprised with the way the American aircraft in particular have been improved with Wolf's corrections to the performance aspect of the EAW aircraft. Old Versions: EAWRiP.zip 537kb

The RIP Flight Files were created by Jim Farmer of the RIP ladder tournament in a effort to have a historically accurate and competitive selection of aircraft for all Nations for ladder play. The files also concentrate on engine performance, and do not have the 'engine bug' experienced with many eca/ecao aircraft. He is not affiliated with any squad, and was heavily involved with the beta testing of EAW.

RIP PLUS: ONLINE SQUADRON FILES: (RIPplusA4_V12.zip  or  RIP+A4NEW.zip  or  EAWRIPv1.2plusFW190A4 537kb)
by Jim "Wolf" Farmer.
This is the standard RIP (Realistic In Performance) version with one change. Now includes the 2nd version of the FW190-A4, as opposed to the FW190-A8 in the ladder files. The corrected weapons loadout is also used to make the A4 more acceptable for intersquad gameplay, its similar to the A4 in ECAO and MSA. This was in response to German Online squads who desired a more nimble dogfighter for online dogfighting. NOT compatible for ladder play. 

Fighter Command Flight Model: (FCFM1_00.zip 21.9kb  or FlightCommandFMv1.00-FCFM1_00.zip 22kb)
by Scorpion aka nvennard.
This is something I put together very fast so it probably still needs some work. The Germans use ECAO 1.3, the RAF EAW 1.2 and the USAAF RIP. Guns are the EAW 1.2, damage is the EAW 1.2 increased (tougher) by 25%.

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7N Flightmodel: (Flightmodel_109E7N.zip 1.43kb)
by Jean "JPI" Pigeon.
The E-7/N variant was equipped with the DB 601N engine, which had 1250 hp. Differences to the 109E-4 where the ability to carry a 300 litre droptank and several other little improvements. Armament was like the BF 109E-4, 2 x 20mm MG/FF and 2 x 7.9mm MG 17.

ME262A-1a Flight Mod plus Low Fuel Mod: (ME262FLT_PLUS_FuelMod.zip 3.67kb)
by Serb and Max188.
The idea I had was to use the latest refinements and add even more realistic performace. For example, I did some adjusting to the throttle rate, so as to give the turbo a much longer response time. Also, several references indicate that the turbo's max velocity at sea level was(TAS) 800km, at 6000m was 870km, and at 9000m was at 840km. What I have tried to do was give the turbo more velocity, while very slightly decreasing the engine drag stability, so as to reach these velocity numbers in the sim.

Multi Squadron Alliance Pack or MSA Package: (msa.zip 1.59MB)
by Jim Farmer, Hakan Langebro, Charles Gunst, Scorpion.
( M.S.A. ) Custom EAW ENABLER and FLIGHT FILES package. With this package you only need one install of European Air War instead of four. You will be able to play with anyone with these package choices at Kali or the Zone. No more incompatible versions. Contains: EAWRiP.zip , ECA_Enable.exe , ecaonl111 zip , ecapanel14.zip , MSVBVM60.DLL

FLIGHT FILE INSTRUCTIONS FOR MULTIPLE FLIGHT DATA VERSIONS ON A SINGLE EAW INSTALL
Written by J.Savlan, 56FG C.O.

To Install Using Scorpions Enabler Program:

1) Make a new install of EAW v1.2.
2) Now using your Windows file explorer in the \European Air War\ folder -Make new FOLDERs, These should be within the games main folder.
EAW
ECA.
ECAO
RIP
If you have any more, then create a folder for each and name them appropriately.
Now you will be putting the various flight data files in the appropriate folders:
3) First, COPY the default stock FLT.CDF and DATA.CDF files from the main game folder into the new '\EAW' folder you just made. That puts the original EAW flight flies in place for the 'Enabler' program to fetch those files latter.
4) Next, extract the eca-online zip file in your new '\ECAO' folder.
5) Extract the eca and eca control panel files both in the new '\ECA' folder you created.
6) Extract the EAWRiP.zip file  into the new '\RIP 'folder.
OK, NOW ALL YOUR NEW FOLDERS SHOULD HAVE VARIOUS FLIGHT DATA FILES IN THEM.
7) Next, place the msvbvm60.dll file in your C:/windows/system directory or game folder.
8) Now place the ECA_Enable.exe file into your main game folder ( i.e.  "\European Air War") 
9) You can now make a shortcut to ECA Enable program on your desktop, BUT THIS MAY NOT WORK!! If it doesn't, run it directly from the .exe in the folder, not a shortcut.  When you click on the ECA_Enable icon you should have a choice of 4 options…..
1.Install ECA Panel"
2 Install ECA Online
3.Install RIP
4.EAW Flight Models
Select which type of flight data online players will be using.
If playing a eca 1.4 panel game,
you will first use the Enabler to choose 'install eca panel'.  Then you will go to the main game folder ( i.e "\European Air War" ) and hit F5 once to refresh the file view. You should now see the ecapanel.exe file was moved there. Double click it to bring up the panel and choose your planes. Then fly online as usual.
NOTE:
I HAVE FOUND THAT AFTER A ECA PANEL GAME, IF YOU TRY TO LOAD A DIFFERENT GAME (I.E. RIP OR ECAONLINE) YOU WILL GET A  ERROR.  THIS HAPPENS IF YOU LEAVE THE ECAPANEL OPEN.  IF YOU HAVE FINISHED FLYING ECA PANEL AND WANT TO TRY ANOTHER FLIGHT CHOICE, YOU MUST CLOSE THE ENEMY COAST AHEAD PANEL. Hope this makes flying online easier and more enjoyable.

MSA v1.20 Flight Model Files: (MSA1_20.zip 541kb)
by Jim Farmer, Hakan Langebro, and flight files edited by RAF Scorpion.
This is a version of RIP and other files adopted (repackaged) by the Multi Squad Alliance, known now as "Scorpion Flight Models" ( ver. 1.20, formerly known as MSA files). A combination of what are considered by many to be the best flight files of all the available packages, RIP 1.2, by Jim Farmer/Wolf-257 files with the addition of the ECA Online 1.2 FW190A-4 (instead of the A8 version), by Hakan Langebro. The Fw190A4, which is so loved and familiar to the Luftwaffe fans. Old Versions: MSA1_10.zip 540kb

Also includes the Me262A and FW190D-9 as available to fly in 1944 for the Multi Squad Alliance (MSA) war. It is not compatible with any other version, but it was designed and tested by the founding squadrons of the MSA ( 56th Fighter Group, JG26, and the 1st RAF). All of the aircraft have been tested to be fairly competitive so that no one nationality has a unfair advantage.  

This is an update to the MSA.ZIP above.

To add this file without the complete download, use just the planes.dat and install it in your MSA folder.

Enabler Simple Installation Instructions:

1) Begin with new install of EAW.
2) Patch to 1.2
3) Create 3-5 new folders in your EAW folder.
4) Rename these "New Folders" the following:
eaw
eca
ecao
rip
msa
If you have any more, then create a folder for each and name them appropriately.
5) Find the FLT.CDF and DATA.CDF files in your EAW folder and COPY them to the new folder named "eaw".
6) Install the ECA-related files in the new folder named "eca" (this will include "ECA 1.4" and the "ECA Control Panel 2.0", if you want them both).
7) Install ECA Online to the new folder named "ecao".
Do the same with any other files like RIP and MSA (install to RIP to the new "rip" folder, etc.)
8) If it's not already there, place the "msvbvm60.dll" file in your "Windows\System" folder.
9) Place the "Enabler.exe" file in your original EAW folder.
10) Create a shortcut on your desktop for the Enabler.

This should get Scorpions Enabler set up properly with the appropriate flight data folders.

MSKINMOD: (mskinmod.zip 863kb)
by Paulo Morais.
Multipurpose Skin, Flight/3DModel Replicator. Enables aircraft alterations like swapping flight characteristics and changing aircraft roster. (Paulo's work on the structure of EAW is responsible for making many of the Add-On advances that are listed on this page possible in the first place!), this utility makes it possible to swap virtually ANY plane in EAW for another. This includes skins, flight data, and everything else. You want an FW190D in two different aircraft slots at the same time? No problem. What? You want them on opposing sides? That can be done too! Like EAW Aircraft Edit, it may be a little too complicated for a new EAW player, but if you're up to it, MSKINMOD opens a whole host of possibilities!

In general It allows to transfer the shape of planes to other slots including new skins and virtual views if provided as file. It allows also to override the nationality; So for example say the Fw190 3dmod uses a Spitfire slot and represents a LA5 complete with russian skin.

This is a big plus so now you can switch the shape of a german kite to the allied side give it a different skin and flight mod and use it as allied plane. The whole also works vice versa! So the limitation of applying japanes or any other axis flight mods only to the german planes is overcome.

With the programm comes a completely done russian scenario with russian Lagg 1&3 (P51B as base 3dmod) , La5&7 (Fw190 as base), Pe2 & Tu2 (Bf110 as base), and some changes to skins of existing aircrafts such as Hurricanes with russian skin. Oops forgot to mention 109E,F,G & K; 190A4,8 & D9. The russian scenario is just to show what's possible, so be encouraged to try it out and make own mods maybe of the Pacific theatre.

...a new utility for EAW. This program makes it is possible to fly sweeps against similar planes (e.g. Finnish Hurricanes vs Soviet Hurricanes) or to have several different looking, but same planes in the same game (e.g. LLv34 G-6 with JG5 G-6 fighting against EAF Spit9 and No609 Spit9). MSKINMOD works both offline and online. In online use all pilots in the same game have to have the same configuration loaded

...a multipurpose Windows program capable of replicating all or just some parts of EAW aircraft data from slot to slot. Components from different aircraft can be mixed, in order to get new aircraft types or versions. The copy process is fully automated and is controlled by user editable configuration files. The configuration files can be easily distributed to insure that everything is consistent and allow for correct online usage. Many and very different types of modifications can be easily obtained, from just name or skin changes to fully featured addons passing through intermediate complexity modifications like:

- creation of similar aircraft duels (historical or just for fun);
- creation of multiple copies of the same aircraft using different skins in order to provide visual identification of squad members or squad cooperation against a common foe.

It is compatible with flight model modifications like ECA online, ECApanel or 42TPE. It can also be configured to make changing between this type of EAW modifications a much more easy and safe process. Some sample configuration files and skins are also enclosed. They are meant to show what can be done with the program.

You can fly the Me 410, Ju 88 in single missions when using the MSKINMOD program. Try swapping the Bf 110 C for the Me 410 and the Bf 110 G for the Ju 88. You will need to get some new skins from somewhere and also the canopy transparency files from PICPAC to make it all work. As far as I know this is the easiest way to swap flight models and 3DZ files.

Using the Mosquito->P38H slot as an example.
(Note: MSKINMOD has a mechanism that tries to make it more compatible with the concurrent use of other addons. Before applying any changes it checks for the presence of the files is going to use/modify in EAW folder. If they are present it is assumed that fact is known by the user and are meant to be used instead of any others that needed to be extracted from the original CDF files. You should try to start from the cleanest EAW configuration possible and progressively add new data to avoid problems.)

After firing MSKINMOD you enter the configuration editor by selecting
'Edit Current Configuration' and press Apply.

In the editor select the aircraft slot to change in the list box named 'Base Type' in this case the P38H is already selected.

In the listbox named 'Flight Model' select MOSQ.

If you want to preserve the British nationality for your Mosquito you don't need to touch the 'Nationality override' listbox.

In the '3D Model' listbox select MOSQ again.

If you have a new skin for the Mosquito please place the TPC files in the SKINSM folder. Afterwards you must provide the 4 letters after the P that identify a particular skin (pMOSQtex.tpc). You can use the button at the side (the one with 3 dots) to browse another folder and select the correct name. The 4 letters will be extracted for you automatically.

Next you must provide in the Edit box named 'On-screen name' the name you want to be shown. In this case 'Mosquito', 'Mosquito FB VI' or anything else is OK.

Finally the most important step. To make the changes permanent you must press the APPLY button at the top of the Dialogue box. Only after this action the changes are written to the current configuration file that will be used when you go back to the main interface and select 'Backup Data and Enable'.

If you plan to use other alternative configurations (Me410 in the same P38H slot) to avoid loosing the changes I suggest that you create a copy of the current configuration file by pressing 'Save To ...' and provide a meaningful filename in the old 8.3 format.

Version2:
I found there was a bug in MSKINMOD that fortunately only affects some particular configurations. The fixed version is ready but I have a problem with the distribution. Right now I am working on a V2 that add the capability of transfering the loadouts configuration from slot to slot when you choose to transfer the flight model. This way it will be very easy to use all the non-flyable airplanes in quick/instant missions without loosing any special loadouts for the type. I am particularly interested in making possible the use of the Ju87G in tank-hunting missions.

Pacific 1941 Flight Model Set: (Pacific1941FlightModelSet.zip 27.8kb)
by Col. Gibbon.
This flight model set contains the .FLT and .DAT files for the following aircraft: Mitsubishi A5M4 'Claude', Bell P-39C 'Airacobra', Curtiss P-36A 'Hawk'. The archive also contains correction files for the guns of the following aircraft:
Consolidated B-24 'Liberator', Boeing B-17 'Flying Fortress', Martin B-26 'Marauder'.

Planes N'More v1.1: (PlanesNMorev1.1.zip 5.91MB  or  planesnmore11.7z 3.90MB)
by Charles Gunst.
allows you access to five new planes plus new additions to gun settings as well as other tweaks. Now you can fly the Me-410A Hornisse, Ju-88C, Ju-87 B Stuka, Mosquito Mark VI and the B26 B Marauder.

EAWRP or Realism Patch: (EAWrp  ??kb   or  RealismPatch  ??kb)
by Ralf "Knegel" Kraeft and Brian "BPNZ" Purcel.
RP (Realism patch)...Improves the FM and DM models. Most long term EAW virtual pilots know, that the original stock 1.2 Flight Model (FM) , damage and gunnery is in most cases biased in favor of some allied planes to begin with. It is well known to all who have followed EAWs modding development that, Knegel with the the help of others (Most of the best virtual flyers in EAW) input and testing have worked on balancing the Flight Model (RP's or Realism Patches) performance and damage model and gunnery characteristics for some 6 + years (started back in 2001?).
Knegel has always said that because the EAW system is imperfect many do not realize that what has been achieved now is "Balance" of all planes. done so for a more equal level, it's not perfection of each plane by itself. It is not perfect and cannot be both for the way EAW was developed with limited data functions available (physics and FM settings), and that there is no exact science in matching exactly to the true real life wartime flight performances, etc. which can only be estimated at this point. Old Versions: EAWrp1.zip 27.9kb , EAWrp1030mm.zip 27.9kb / (109G6 with 30mm) , EAWrp2ver1.zip , EAWrp22.zip 330kb , EAWrp2.6_00.zip , EAWrp2.6V09s.zip 574kb , EAWrp2.6V10_release.zip 694kb , EAWrp3.zip 60.1kb / for off-line play with OAW. , EAWrp3Planes1.zip 8.96kb / contains 6 additional aircraft for use with EAWrp3.0. They are the Hurricane IIb, SpitfireVc, Me109F2, Me109F4, FW190A4 and FW190A8-R8.

A little history about the other popular ECA(O) modified FM's is it was a try to offer FMs/DMs and good weapon setup for all add-on aircraft that are available for EAW. Knegel says, the amount of aircraft and the limited knowledge on FM editing back then didn't allow much accuracy with those FMs. So Knegel decided to do some work on the FMs himself. The result is his Realism Patch's. It only includes FMs for the standard EAW planes (plus a few more) but it's FMs are much more realistic.

...rp1, Version 1, which enhances flight models and weapons, to create more realistic flight. EAWrp 1.0 / 1.0 30mm added 30mm cannon to a 109-G6. I was working on a Hitbubblepatch, now i have a good result to make tests, this patch include: 1. -in different parts less hitbubbles/poits 2. -more effective Cannons in comparison with MG´s (a short burst with the 30mm and the fighter before you is only piece´s) 3. - hits with 800m distance need much better aiming, its nearly impossible to kill turning planes from 800m(2400ft) 4. - better tailgunners on close distance, less good on long distance, if you turn you will get less hits in comparison to strait flying. 5. - better rollratio of, 190´s, 109´s, Spit14. 6. - less power for 109K4,Spit14, Spit9 7. - improved Convergence cause the MG´s are closer to the fuselage. 8. - changed best/highest-altitude. 9. - last but not least, fixing of the 'right-wing-bug', in the default EAW the left inner winghitbubble is set to the right wing, so it was more easy to destroy the right wing, now both wings break same fast/late.
109E4 have less power too, P38, P51, 190A8/D9 have more power. All FM/engine-changings are really small for now. The Gunnery is more like in IL2 now but still stable planes, so more fun for me, long distance kills with big deflection are less easy than in IL2. The Hit bubbles have nearly the same size like the skin (iam sure there are still some mistakes), the wingtip is without hit bubble, with only 2 hit bubbles per wing its not easy to make it most real, but the wingtip wasn't easy to hit so its a little mistake i think.

...rp1.1, In the EAWrp1.1 the Gun datas and hitpoint datas will be new (after some tests and long, very interesting discussions in the EAW-simHQ forums), AND the FM´s will be totaly new. All planes will be much more heavy so the landing, and the slow-flight-behavior will be more like real planes, not this glider behavior.
The G6, A8, D9, P47, Spit14 will climb much better. The energy bleed depends not only in the wing weight, the engine power also influence the e-bleed now (like it have to be). So the SpitIX will have less e-lost than the Spit1A, the e-lost relation between Spit1A vs E4 and SpitIXc vs G6+A8 will be much less cause the higher power of the German planes. At high alt the Spits will get more advantage cause the less wing load get more important (less power).
The planes with very less power (1940planes) realy dot have a chance to get a 1943 plane, cause more realistic speed, acceleration and specially e-bleed.
In the default EAW the e-bleed is terribly modeled. The E4 vs Spit1A relation for example is, 7,5 : 4,5(1,66:1) but the wing load relation of the real planes is ; 31 : 24(1,29:1), and they modeled the more power of the E4 wrong, cause they forgot that the power work again the e-bleed, so the relation of the real e-bleed-relation should be smaller than 1,29:1.
In the default EAW they programmed a much to good acceleration (better than the Spit9 acceleration) to the E4 to compensate to high e-bleed, that's why the E4 is climbing that good in a slow climb but not in a steep climb, while a steep climb i have to use the elevator, but than the e-bleed kill the speed. In the EAWrp1.1 the E4 will climb better than the spit while steep climbing, but while a flat climb with high speed the Spit nearly climb as fast, and the Spit accelerate nearly same fast while a horizontal flight. The E4 accelerate faster while a dive. All together i hope the FM will be more that, what i did read about it.
For now the E4, Spit1A, Hurri, 110, SpitIX, G6 and 190A8 are ready for a test.

...rp2.1 don't have new FM´s, there nearly the default FM´s with minor changes, only the DM is much more realistic...the v2.6 series it the latest version with EAWrp2.6V10 being the last version. (v3.0 was an older test which worked offline, rp3.0 and can be combined use with Paulo Morais and Andy's v1.1PC eaw.exe if you choose to try the harder A.I, they fly better than humans so its good training.)

The RP series is easiest used within the OAW manager but you can download them and use the default plane set flight models directly if you want. In these Realistic Patch's you will find cannons more effective, and hit bubbles much smaller (you no longer will have the unreal long distance kills, so you need to get closer and aim better to get kills, more like the real thing.) It will be much more balanced and real. In fact, in most cases during dogfights you have to get within 'close range' and require a 80-90% solution to be guaranteed a kill!...most real WWII pilots wrote that shooting from 200m was luck, specially to a moving target. 100m was much more destructive, 50m always was deadly with cannons. 500m kills to a single engine fighter you can count as luck, but its possible. Get close, below 120m distance, and give a long shot (maybe 1-2 sec) then the enemy goes down fast.

If you use EAWrp2.6V9s (used online alot because of the damagemodel). This FM/DM was made only for screenshots!!
In EAW1.2 we don't have a guns convergence, as result you cant hit a target with all guns, if they are places far outside of the wing (most allied planes are like that, in opposite to the german planes). In real life the guns are adjusted to let the bullet stream of all guns meet up in a certain distance (by default 350 yard for US planes, early British planes used around 200 yard). In this distance the guns was most effective and there was a wide range where the bullets still did hit the target, though not that centered anymore. To overcome the missing guns convergence in EAW1.2, I did introduce a "improved guns convergence" (after a vote), where all wingmounted guns got shifted toward the fuselage by 30%. The whole damagemodel of EAWrp2.6 was adjusted to bring credible results with this improved guns convergence!! The "s" version of EAWrp2.6 only was released for "screenshots", cause the guns of course was misplaced and the muzzleflashs on the wrong positions (not important when you fly the plane). So without the improved guns convergence the planes with far outside placed guns lose around 40% of the firepower, cause almost never all guns can hit a target. Additionally you need to aim with one wing, to hit the the wanted point (engine/wing root etc). All over this increase the time you need to stay on target, to get the kill, by around 40%, while you waste around 40% more bullets what cut down the effective time to shoot by 40%. Actually the effective time to shoot get reduced much more, cause you cant get a fast kill, so the enemy, even if surprised, always will make a difficult target, cause he have the time to react.

...rp3.0 include new Flightmodels and a Damagemodel which are based on rp2.0.

The flightmodel´s contain realistic seelevel and high alt speed´s as far as
i got reliable information.
The initial climbratios are also more realistic than the default EAW climbratios.
The E-bleed(drag) while turning got changed much.
The dive acceleration is much faster due to a higher weight all over, so the planes feel
much more heavy and miss the strange gliderbehaviour of the default EAW1.2 planes.
Most planes can get highspeedstalls, but the spin will come a bit later than in EAW1.2,
specialy the 109´s will have problems to get a spin, and even if there is a spin , its a very slow one.

Iam sure there are still many parts which could be better, if you have ideas or knowledge
about a special flightbehaviour....

The best way to use rp3.0 is in combination with the OAWselector, the OAWrp3.0zip include the full F4 (OAWrp3.0) folder, the EAWrp3.0.zip include the full F5 (EAWrp3.0) folder, so
if you already have OAW, you only need to extract the zip into the OAW directory.

If you wanna use the FM´s without the OAWselector, you need to copy the *.flt and planes.dat files into the EAW folder (next to the EAW.exe). You also can use other tool´s, like Stab, Skin´s n More or the Thememanager to set and reset the FM/DM.

This is the EAWrp3.0 file for off-line play with OAW...

...EAWrp3Planes1.zip...This zip contains 6 additional aircraft for use with EAWrp3.0. They are the Hurricane IIb, SpitfireVc, Me109F2, Me109F4, FW190A4 and FW190A8-R8...

OAWrp3.0 is mainly made for online gaming, the fuel burning ratios are much higher and all US planes are also British, this can cause problems while campaigns, I will also offer a EAWrp3.0 with less high fuel burning ratios and US planes only as US planes, so mainly for campaign players. The rp´s are only made for default planes, other planes will follow! I know why rp3.0 doesn't work online. (I had to improve some things with strange settings) Its because one value, the maximum velocity in flight control data which EAW uses to calculate the position of the A/C´s while online gaming, but not while offline gaming. I don't know why the EAW-makers choose to go this way, but i cant change it fast, cause this value is the only value in EAWAircraftEdit to change the drag while strait flying. I still look for a possibility to solve the rp3.0 online problem, but I need a working program to change the response curves for that.

OAWselectV3 already is able to use the additional planes. You can set one of the 6 additional planes into the basic EAWrp3.0-planeset , or all, like you want. In this way you can fly a 190A4 vs a SpitIXc, a 109F4 vs a HurriI or HurriII, a 109E4 vs a HurriII etc. (OAWrp2.1 also have 2 additional planes, the 190A8-R8 and the 109G6 with 30mm.)

The rp3.0-planes have a good realistic behavior, so rp3.0 is a good base to create new A/C´s in a good relation.
OAWrp2.1 miss such a FM. I think its not worth to work on a other FM than EAWrp3.0, cause all other FM´s miss some very important parts of a real FM. The planes are much to light, the typical glider behavior of all EAW planes (if the engine got disabled) cant get changed in the default FM´s, it need a total new basic FM setup, like i made in rp3.0.

About other FM Mods and the RP:
There are so many mistakes in EAW1.2, ECAo, ECA, EAWrp3.0 and OAWrp2.1, I only can wonder why the EAW community pilots have accepted this, and why nobody would provide feedback comments from the resulting mods...The FM/DM should always be in a process to be made closer to realism (not necessarily to make it more difficult!!)...

I made these new FM/DM´s in the hope the people use them and provide feedback and I (or them) could start to make them better and better, so other simmers see how good the new EAW-FM/DM is and come back for a revival. I thought if the people see what is possible in EAW, they would start to improve the FM/DM´s...With the default EAW1.2, ECAo, ECApanel and EAWrp2.* FM´s we are so far away from realistic FM´s that we 1st would need to discuss and to find out how to change the FM´s not which datas are most realistic. For now we cant make realistic FM´s in a easy way cause we still don't know how to use all the EAW FM-values in a proper way.

To understand the relation between EAWrp3.0, default 1.2, EAWrp2.*, ECA and ECAo, you need to know that EAWrp2.*. ECA0, ECApanel and the default EAW1.2 FM are all very similar, with the small changes that the different authors made, more or less to create realistic FM´s, unfortunately they may all share the same base, specially if they are made out of the same basic FM(slot). This makes all A/C´s of their FM´s feel very similar in the behavior, that's why the A6M Zero feels like a FW190, and why the FW190A4 feels like a SpitIXc (both planes show the exact the same FM settings in EAWAircraftEdit/EAWae).

EAWrp3.0 is total different, the planes have a total different basic FM. They can get into high speed stalls, specially close to the ground you can feel the weight of the plane, the original 'glider behavior' of the stock game is gone. Even EAWrp3.0 for sure could be much better (if one would have spent more time into it), However, its a step forward...

Mentioning some of the Performance:
The biggest different between the default EAW1.2 FM/DM and all EAWrp2.6 versions is that the Spitfires and Hurricanes lost the incredible small e-bleed while turning (in the old FM they almost increased speed due to the turn). In the flightmodels I made(EAWrp), the advantage of the 110C is its speed (specially in a shallow dive) and stored energy, due to its extraordinary weight (similar like the P38). As soon as the plane lost all its energy or altitude, its a sitting duck. The climb is bad, the sustained turn is bad, the roll is not to bad, but still not better than that of the allied single engined planes. To shoot down a fighter with an 110c is not easy, with the extreme guns of the 110G its more easy, still need patience.

The 110 wasn't the sitting duck some myths wanna make believe. Its drawback was the poor initial rollratio, poor sustained turn, poor sustained and the big target size(easy to hit). As result it was difficult to get a kill and difficult to escape a faster plane.

The P51´s in most EAWrp2.6 versions, but also in most other EAW FM/DM´s suffer much by the heavy fuelload.
In EAWrp2.6V10, same like in the EAW1.28 FM/DM we disabled the Aux tank in the fuselage. In real life this tank only got used for long range escort missions and this fuel got used even before the droptanks got touched, cause the plane got instable with it. In flight we cant select the tanks that we want to use 1st and always if you have droptanks they get used 1st, so the P51´s in most cases start the fight with full fuselage tanks, resulting in a rather bad performance, when the Aux tank is available.

Further more in EAW1.2 we cant model WEP in a good way, cause we only have one static time to overheat for all planes(in EAW1.28 this did change, so now the planes can have WEP).

Regarding the maneuverability of the P51´s its the other way around like with the 110C. Only if you use the WW1 like dogfight style, you will find the P51 to be a bad plane. In real life the P51 wasn't the best dogfighter, but it always could disengage and it could follow all evading maneuvers of the enemys, at least long enough to get a good shot.

The P51 isnt a good climber, neither its a good turner (though better than the P47D and P38J) and the maneuverability at slow to medium speed was poor at all (compared to the 109G and FW190A), but at highspeed(550km/h IAS +) the P561 shine like a bright star. At this speeds its rollratio overcome the 109´s and at very high speed its on par with the FW190. Turning at very high speed is possible and the critical mach is also very high. As higher the P51 fly as more advantages it will show(specialy over the FW190A).

Of course all this nice features dont count much online, in a 1 vs 1, where people dont want to disengage, specialy not against a plane with a better climb, but in a mayhem, with 4-16 players, the P51 can show its potential, cause here its possible to escape and to look for other targets, same like in a teamfight.

The Me262(the last plane I adjusted) is a really fast plane now like it was, but the horizontal acceleration in slow flight is poor, the climb is roundabout 1000m/min with 400-500km/h best climb speed. The takeoff with the 262 is really fun now. 2/3 Flaps are a must or the runway will be to short. After the undercarriage was raised, its necessary to get some speed, then you need to raise 1/3 flaps to get faster, the plane will fall a bit while the flaps are changing poistion. After the 262 gets a bit more speed, you can raise the last 1/3 flaps, the plane will lose alt again, you need to pull the stick backward. If the 262 reach 300km/h it will get a level flight so the acceleration will be a bit better and don't stop until 695km/h in see level.
If the 262 is in high alt (above 6000m) the pilot need to look for the speed and dive angel. Out of max speed (+800km/h) the dive angel shouldn't be to steep, cause the plane will accelerate very fast into the compression (950km/h IAS), then the 262 will get into a steeper dive until 2000-3000m alt, where the speed reduce naturally by the thick air (only if the power got reduced). A steep dive in this plane is really dangerous cause the great acceleration due to a great aerodynamic. But no one have to dive steep in this plane.

I'm not sure about the relation between the different planes, offline it feel good to me. Since all FM´s need a new flying style and so much training to get perfect in a special plane, it will need some time to see how the relation is. 1st we need experts, who can fly each plane on the edge and which are able to get the best out of each plane, then we will see if the relations are ok. The climb, max speed (see level up to max alt) look good, even I didn't do a climb test for all alt´s in all a planes. I only made many climb test in planes where I had realistic values (Spit1A + IXc +14, 109E4+ G6+ K4, FW190D9, Hurri). Try the 109 in a stall. The plane nearly doesn't spin, the 109 has a smooth wide stall, while a spin (red hud) the plane fall out of the sky with the left wing at 1st, but no spin. The easy to handle stall is a real advantage!! I'm really enthusiastic about the possibilities of the EAW-FM´s, even it could be much better if we had a new EAWAircraftEdit program with all possible values that are available in the games data.

Note: The last version, v2.6 may have been incorporated into the Unified OAW manager program...To get german AI to use Cannons more vs Bombers, As solution EAWrp2.6 include some 'special' 109´s and 190´s to overcome this (without MG). All Me109F/G/K-R6-AI´s use their wing cannons always if they shoot, same like one 190A8. As result the bombers get slaughtered if the attackers are larger in numbers than the bombers. So if you make intercepts, use 190G-R6´s, the special 190A8 or the Ta152H..."special" 109G and 190A8 partially solve problem. Unfortunately, there is no special 190D9.

The 190A8-R8 in planeset1 for example have 2 less MG´s, and 2 x 30mm instead of the 20mms in the outer wing, but much more plating for the Pilot and engine, its only a bit more heavy than the default 190A8 but have a slower initial roll ratio.

Hit bubbles Note: The hit bubbles are reduced , some say by too much. This made it very difficult to shoot down enemy planes, but also hard to get shot down, thereby reducing the challenge of making it through a career in an undead state. Even the wing hit bubbles of all planes got enhanced a bit (in relation to rp2.0), there isn't much time to aim with a much plane modded to be faster. You will have the feeling of extremely fast approaches.

Competition Mod: (TipsCOMPmod.zip 38.5kb)
by Tip aka Tip87th.
Rp , Beta Test....
This started out as an Fm/Dm with the object of being exact flight models for the original flyable planes in EAW with an eye towards online flying. What I found through researching the aerial battles over Europe is that many of the intangibles, which are a necessity for recreating those scenarios, are exceeding difficult if not impossible to reproduce within the limitations of our current online computer play.


In the interest of competitiveness, as well as the enjoyment of online players of EAW, basically the models now exhibit their historical performance and idiosyncrasies in a compressed altitude atmosphere. For aircraft which had better performance at lower altitudes. That performance has been moved up to higher altitudes. For aircraft which had better performance at higher altitudes. That performance has been moved down to lower altitudes. This resulted in having some of the planes speed performances of approximately 5000 to 6000 ft. as their performance at sea level. The historical climb rates, which are proving prone to so much speculation and debate, have been parried somewhat although aircraft which have performance data suggesting they out climb others continue to do so.

All Flyable Update: (VBH_AF_Update_091207.zip 2.45kb)
by VBH.
...

All Flyable: (VBH_AllFlyablesLP2.6S.zip 11.9MB)
by VBH.
This package allows selection of all 29 planeslots online as well as offline and was derived from Charles Gunst's ECA panel and Knegel's Rp 2.6. To fly the previously unflyable slots offline....

Related Download Links:
-plane-mod-ordnance

Contains 3DZ and Skins and Gun Data mod files.

Gun Pack v1.0: (vipers_gunpack.zip  or  VipersGunpackv1.0  529kb)
by Steelviper.
Armament mod-Different armament settings for various planes and more features. This pack was made to give EAW pilots a more realistic air combat experience. Battles are now far more furious, harder and will demand more piloting skill to survive. Explore new tactics and experience new enemies! Enjoy!

General changes:

-Historical correct gun firing rates and realistical shell penetration power for both allied and german guns. This means that
battles in EAW are generally quicker,harder and kills are "easier" to aquire.But you will also quicker run out of ammo!
-Increased firing range for both german and allied bombers. Beware now, German bombers will defend themselves eagerly now!
-Corrected ammo capacity for some planes.
-Corrected damage values for some planes.
-Corrected maximal velocity from some planes.
-Mosquito was changed to armed fighter variant.
-Made all planes capable of carrying bombs available to choose as bombers in bombing missions.
-Some german planes feature one or more Ruestsatz(e), which means additional guns have been mounted to the plane.
Ruestsatze were very common with most german planes and were build to add additional firepower to the basic design.

German Gun Collection: (GermanGunCollectionv1.1-EAW GCC11.zip 250kb)
by Christian Mosimann.
This add-on sets more realism to the gunnery of the German Aircraft. Adds guns and changes existing values for the Luftwaffe to give more historic/realistic gun weaponry/ballistics. It doesn't work with ECA. Check the readme file for details. Old version: EAW-GGC10.zip 55kb 

A.I. Cannons 2 Patch: (AIcannons2patch.zip 367kb)
by RAF_Roy. Patch created by Ralf "Knegel" Kraeft
AI Cannon patcher.

Gun Patch: (gunpatch.zip  or  gunpatchv1.zip 5kb)
by Paulo Morais.
Adds heavy cannons to German aircraft. Converts the Fw-190A8 in an R1 sub variant with 4 MG151 in outboard gondolas, Bf-109G6 to an R6 sub variant with 2 MG151 in outboard gondolas, Me-109K4 to a K6 heavy fighter with 2 MK108 in the wings, Corrects the Bf-110G as it is described in the manual with the addition of 2 belly MG151s. The new weapons can be cycled.
To install extract the contents of the zip file to your European Air War directory. To test the Gun Patch simply run European Air War and give it a go. You can uninstall the Gun Patch files by deleting the following files from your European Air War directory; 109g.flt, 109k.flt, 190a.flt, Planes.dat. Not compatible with Enemy Coast Ahead by Charles Gunst and the Stuka Add-On by Erwin von Helton.

Gun Patch v2: (gunpatch.zip 23.8kb or  gunpatchv2.zip 24kb  or  gunpatchv2.7z 20.1kb)
by Paulo Morais and Pasha
This Gun Patch makes the following changes: Adds heavy cannons to German aircraft. It also makes adjustments to aircraft making it more realistic. (You may find that the Gun Patch and the Stuka Add-On by Erwin von Helton will not work together. Not compatible with Enemy Coast Ahead which also happens to incorporates heavy cannons to German aircraft).

Converts the Fw-190A8 in an R1 sub variant with 4 MG151 in outboard gondolas
Bf-109G6 to an R6 sub variant with 2 MG151 in outboard gondolas
Me-109K4 to a K6 heavy fighter with 2 MK108 in the wings
Corrects the Bf-110G as it is described in the manual with the addition of 2 belly MG151s.
The new weapons can be cycled.

Pasha's Gun Patch is useful since if you want to create a scenario of 109g's intercepting heavy bombers then the 109g with 3 cannon is probably the most realistic option. The file also rectifies the error of German armament on the 110g.

The FW190a-series with 6 under-wing cannon is enabled. Whenever playing any single mission scenario all the FW190s are carrying this extra armament. (However in real life, the FW190's in the configuration was quite uncommon). This is especially true when creating scenarios of fighter vs fighter (when carrying this extra-armament would put the German fighters at an extreme disadvantage). This is also the case with both the Bf109g series and k series.

The FW190 icon identifier still shows as A-4 model  The A-4 model is identified because the actual text labels are in a separate EAW file called "tartypes.str". This zip, (Pasha's) Gunpatch does not contain this file. The file has nothing to do with the *.flt files or the planes.dat file and will not cause any other issues than a mislabeled plane. You could theoretically create such a file and rename every aircraft in EAW with virtually any name you wanted!

Installing Gun Patch:
-Extract the contents of the zip file to your European Air War directory.
-To test the Gun Patch simply run European Air War and give it a go.

Uninstalling Gun Patch:
-Delete the following files from your European Air War directory; 109g.flt, 109k.flt, 190a.flt, Planes.dat
(Its possible to default to the original armament of 4 cannon (if it's the A-4 or A-8 series) by deleting all the files from the zip from the game directory)

Removing just the 'planes.dat' file (which affects the armament, rate of fire, damage models, etc) will restore German armament to normal. The *.flt files control most of the actual flight parameters. Together they comprise the what is called the entire "flight model" of a particular aircraft in EAW.

Installing the CDF Extractor:
Extract the contents of the zip file to your European Air War directory.
To run the CDF Extractor go to your EAW directory and run the file Cdfrw.exe.
(Caution, Making incorrect changes to the CDF files in European Air War could cause the game to crash.)

Uninstalling the CDF Extractor:
-Delete the following file from your European Air War directory; Cdfrw.exe.
 

Hit Bubble Size Mod 50%: (HitbubbleSizeMod-PACOHB50.zip 28.0kb)
by Paco.
....decreases 50% the hitbubbles size for all planes, flyable and non-flyable, to get more realistic shooting mode. You have to improve your gunnery skill and shooting distances, according to some aces bibliography readings.

Russian Gun Modification: (RusGunPackBeta01.zip 19.8kb)
by Vitaly A. Perlin aka MailPin.
This download contains the EAW 'Russian aircraft guns' patch, which introduces realistic weapons data for the locations, ammo count, muzzle velocities and gun types of the EAW aircraft of Russia. Also, more realistic flight data for the Mig-3 and Lagg-3 aircraft. The aircraft covered by this patch are the B-25 Mitchell, Il-2, La-7, Lagg-3, Mig-3, La-5FN, Pe-2, Su-2 and the Yak-1, 3 and 9T.

Related Download Links:
-plane-mod-pilots

T-5 White Chute: (White Parachute.zip 59.2kb  or  parachute_white.zip)
by ??.
airmen's classic chute...

German 3D 'pilot in parachute' figure v2: (germanpara2.zip 88.1kb)
by Pobs.
...

Related Download Links:
-plane-mod-renderdistance

Fuel & Rendering: (Fuel&Rendering.zip 207kb)
by Max188 and Per "vonOben" Rasmusson.
...

EAW Fuel Mod - Includes Plane Rendering Mod: (PlaneRenderingFuelMod-combomod.zip 199kb)
by Max188.
EAW models fuel consumption within the game, but the  rates are set so low that you rarely, if ever, need to worry about fuel levels.  Plus,  the combat radius ends up being about double what is indicated in the game.  This mod sets the fuel consumption rate to 1.5 times the default for all planes, including AI. This makes the game more accurate and adds a new dimension to the gameplay of managing fuel in a more realistic manner. This mod also incorporates the Plane Rendering Mod.
Included files are compatible with Default EAW, ECA, ECAO, BoB, 1942 ETO, Pacific Tide, Midway, Poland, France, Mediterranean, Caucasus, and Tunisian campaigns.  Please note that for ECAPanel, you will need to use the Render Mod -Script- below.

Plane Rendering Mod: (rendermod.zip 187kb)
by Max188.
This modification replaces the planes.dat file so that planes are rendered at higher quality for longer distances. This makes it easier to identify the type and orientation of the plane at longer distances. It also increases the distance that planes are visible as dots. The rendermod is a must for no-icon-gamers, this give EAW a 100Miles advantage...default its maybe 40miles. By default EAW v1.2 replaces the close distance graphic too early with the middle distance view. You really could see a hard switch from an exact painted plane to a rough painted plane.

This is most beneficial for those who are running the game at high resolutions.  Included files are compatible with Default EAW, ECA, ECAO, BoB, 1942 ETO, Pacific Tide, and Midway campaigns.  (Please note that if you use Charles' ECAPanel, his latest version 4.2 incorporates the Plane Rendering Mod.)

EAW has five numbers for each aircraft, in the file PLANES.DAT, which regulate the distance at which the different 3DZ files are used. Call these:
Close (uses the detailed F.3Dz)
Medium (uses the medium M.3DZ)
Far (uses the flat-plane S.3DZ)
Line (uses the line T.3DZ)
and Maximum view distances (uses a dot)

The standard EAW numbers are
For small single-engined aircraft (more for larger aircraft):
5,250
15,750
47,250
141,750
680,400
Where 1 EAW unit is 21 feet (don't ask me why).

Using this Plane rendering mod will mean that your PC will have to use the most-detailed 3DZs for much greater distances. The advantage will be improved graphics, and a much reduced need for medium- and long-distance 3DZs. The disadvantage may be a frame-rate reduction, or possibly even a lock-up...From a quick test it would appear that this mod gives a decrease in frame rate of around 20-30% from normal on a old 1.1GHz Athlon Computer with a Ge3Ti200, 256Mb Ram...it will certainly fix that "half-plane" problem, that we get in the twin and four engined slots, especially with converted PAW aircraft (I think, from memory, that the reason for that was that PAW used two medium-distance 3DZs for twin-engined aircraft, where EAW has only one)...It also means one less big 3DZ model that modelers have to make working on new aircraft for these slots.

Plane Rendering Mod2: (rendermod2.zip 13kb)
by VonOben.
Has created some planes.dat files like Max188 did but for several additional campaigns, including Poland 1939, France 1940, Mediterranean 1941, Caucasus 1942, and Tunisian 1942.

Related Download Links:
-plane-skins+

Plane-Skins+ Notes:

• I've sorted each skin by plane type.
• Exterior Canopy Artwork, Spinners and Prop fixes are mixed in.
• Note that some of the larger Plane "skins" file archives actually contain an entire Aircraft. This means the skin archive itself could include all files that make up an airplane; Cockpits, Wing Views, Flight Model Data Files, 3DZ Models and Fixes etc.
• The /_misc folder files elude me to where to place them. Some maybe fine in the misc section like general Pilot artwork that applies to no specific plane. But the other files need readmes and placed in the correct skins folder.
• The /_pack folder contains archives with different types of aircraft, zipped up usually for a single purpose.

Skin Packs
Most skins are available as single downloads. However there are some that are "packaged" together, specifically for use with a specific terrain or a campaign. One example would be a pack which is designed for use with ECA Control Panel's Aircraft. This is when skins become more of an Aircraft package.

No Mirror
Also be sure to check out the new "No-Mirror" skins. A skin that doesn't have the lettering reversed on the right side. These are available for aircraft in the Battle of Britain (however the aircraft cannot have any capability to carry external ordnance, so the BoB aircraft in EAW qualify), Also check out Airbuddha's "Hermann Graf Me109G" German aircraft skins!

Russian Skin Pack: (ecap2rus.zip ??kb)
by Paulo Morais and Charles Gunst.
for the tool MSKINMOD by Paulo Morais, repackaged by Charles Gunst for ECA 2.0. Re-packaged Russian skins to fit the ECA Control Panel v2.0 aircraft options where the MiG3 is the Hurricane, the Spitfire I the LaGG3, and so on.

Repacked Night Planes: (Night.zip 1.6MB)
by Martin Osranek aka Dolfo.
...June 5 2001...Common Features: Hand-picked aircraft skins (and ?3dz?) best suited for night...

Stuka Add-On: (bvhstuka.zip 177kb)
by Erwin Von Helton.
An add-on that allows you to fly the German Stuka JU-87B1 Dive Bomber. Most of the work is done for you but you will need to perform a little hex editing to complete the add-on...

Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" Add-on: (?? ??kb)
by Christian Mosimann, Cord Hartmann and Paulo Morais
The Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" was the working horse of the Luftwaffe's air transport and supply squadrons. Designed in the early 1930s this three-engined aircraft served on all major fronts during WWII. The Ju-52/3m had its first combat operations during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 as a transport and auxiliary bomber aircraft. During "Operation Weserübung", the naval and aerial attack on Norway, German soldiers were flown into the combat area with this aircraft type.

Later in the war the Ju-52/3m continued to participate in paradrop operations, for example in the attacks on the Netherlands in 1940 and in "Operation Merkur", the aerial assault on Crete Island in 1941. Its main purpose, however, was to transport ammunition and supplies. The Ju-52/3m was also used to transport injured soldiers out of the combat area and served as a personal transport plane for some German officers as well.

I thought it would be a good idea to include such an important aircraft into European Air War (EAW) by MicroProse. Using the tools 3DZ!Studio and 3DZ!Converter by Alessandro Borges construction of the 3D model started in December 2000. During this process, a new approach to 3DZ model editing was developed and used - Concerted Action Modeling (CAM).

After the main 3D model was in a state where my own 3DZ editing abilities reached its limits, Paulo Morais took over to fix the Rendering Sequence bugs that showed up due to the intense modifications done to the template Ju-88A 3D model. The public release features texture skins by Christian Mosimann and my own provisional attempts at skinning for this bird. I owe both of them my honest respect and thanks for all the help to make the Ju-52/3m project become real.

Thanks to all BETA-Testers and have fun with the Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju"!

-Cord Hartmann

Technical Data:
Junkers Ju-52/3m g4e "Tante Ju" Transport / Auxiliary Bomber

Engines 3x BMW 132 A 9-cylinder radial engine with 725 hp

Wingspan 29.95 m (98 ft 10 in)
Length 19.90 m (65 ft 11 in)
Height 4.50 m (14 ft 30 in)

Top Speed 305 km/h (205 mph)
Ceiling 5500 m (18045 ft)
Range 1300 km (872 miles)

Armament 1x 13mm MG 131 in dorsal lafette
2x 7.92mm MG 151 in side windows

The Files:
Skins, Version 1.1 (June 17th 2001) - for the He-111H Slot
-(Ju52_KFSThorn.zip 135kb)
ZIP package includes the 3D model, the texture skin (Ju-52/3m of Kampffliegerschule Thorn) and additional installation notes. The aircraft is also flyable by the player using the add-ons Enemy Coast Ahead (ECA) and ECA Panel by Charles Gunst.
-(Ju52_Green.zip 131kb)
ZIP package includes the 3D model, the texture skin (Ju-52/3m g7e of 2. Staffel / KGzbV 1) and additional installation notes. The aircraft is also flyable by the player using the add-ons Enemy Coast Ahead (ECA) and ECA Panel by Charles Gunst.
-(Ju52_KGzbV1.zip 165kb)
This ZIP package includes the 3D model, the (provisional) texture skin (Ju-52/3m g4e of 11. Staffel IV / KGzbV 1) and additional installation notes. The aircraft is also flyable by the player using the add-ons Enemy Coast Ahead (ECA) and ECA Panel by Charles Gunst.
-(Ju52_KGzbV1_DrabCamo.zip)
This ZIP package includes the 3D model, the (provisional) texture skin (Ju-52/3m g7e of KGzbV 1) and additional installation notes. The aircraft is also flyable by the player using the add-ons Enemy Coast Ahead (ECA) and ECA Panel by Charles Gunst.

-Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" SDM 3DZ files
the Military version 1.1 (Ju52_SDMv11mil+.zip 12kb)
the Military version 1.1 no swastika (Ju52_SDMv11mil-.zip 12kb)
the Civilian version 1.1 no tail MG (Ju52_SDMv11civ+.zip 12kb)
the Civilian version 1.1 no tail MG - no swastika (Ju52_SDMv11civ-.zip 12kb)
These ZIP packages include only the latest short distance 3D model files, to let you apply updates to downloaded previous versions in a quick and convenient way. Moreover, there are some alternate versions to remove the swastika if it offends you, and/or without the tail MG lafette for civilian or Red Cross versions.

-Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" FLT File
Version 1.0 (June 14th 2001) (ju52_flt.zip 1kb)
This ZIP package contains a H111.FLT file to drop into your EAW folder - in case you are not using the add-ons Enemy Coast Ahead (ECA) and ECA Panel by Charles Gunst.

-Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" Service Pack
Version 1.0 (June 14th 2001) - for the English Version of EAW (Ju52_ServicePack_v10.zip 485kb)
This experimental ZIP package includes the following modifications to the original EAW / ECA files:
Ju-52/3m mini picture for Single Mission Parameters and Pilot Career Squadron selection
Ju-52/3m icon, name label and specifications for the View Objects menu
The IV / KGzbV "Teufel" replacing the II / KG 53 "Condor" in the selectable squadrons
New bomb explosion and flak burst sounds converted from Jane's World War II Fighters
Two more or less Ju-52/3m related desktop icons

-Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" Hangar Screen
Version 1.0 (June 14th 2001) (Ju52_Hangar.zip 332kb)
This ZIP package includes the desktop style hangar screen for the Ju-52/3m in the He-111H slot.

-Junkers Ju-52/3m "Tante Ju" PCX Layout
Version 1.0 (June 17th 2001) (Ju52_PCXillustrated.zip 83kb)
This ZIP package includes an illustrated PCX texture file layout for the Ju-52/3m for skinner's information.

Flyable Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress Add-on: (fly_b-17f_pax.zip 1237kb)
by Pretzel.
This mod-pack enables the giant US 4-mot bomber to be player controlled!

Mistel: (mistel_v10.zip 12kb)
by Charles Gunst and Alessandro Borges.
Allows you to fly a FW-190 / Ju-88 Mistel combination in EAW--- Not compatible with Enemy Coast Ahead by Charles Gunst.

3D PLANE MODEL SHAPES
In this section you'll find both modified and new 3D wireframes for EAW to enhance the original or add all-new aircraft models. This section should be of particular interest for aircraft skinners and advanced users. Some of these ZIPs provide sample aircraft skins that use the new wireframes.

Pacific Air War Plane Models: (PAW3DZ.ZIP  or  paw3dz.zip 292kb)
by Charles Gunst.
Contains all the newly available PAW 3D shapes, converted for EAW. I figured out how to import the wire-frame models from the old sim PAW so we can now have some Pacific aircraft that really do have the shape that we are looking for. In fact, not only do these PAW wire-frames help us out in the Pacific, many of these aircraft are very close in appearance to aircraft that fought in Europe (the Ki-84 wire-frame makes an excellent Russian La-5/7, the Ki-61 can be used for the Italian Macchi C.202/5, etc.) These are very useful if you're using ECA Control Panel 3.2.

The missing wings problem of the Zero:
is due to the fact that the 3D model is too detailed to use a single 3DZ file. The limit of elements is close to being exceed with the fuselage by itself.

The missing halves of some twin engined PAW shapes:
is due to different part distributions used in PAW and EAW. The 3D information is there and is complete but in different places. For instance 4 engined EAW shapes have their wings in separate files and the fuselage is inside another. This slots are not fully compatible with PAW shapes for this reason.

PAW Prop Fixes: (?? ??kb)
by Charles Gunst.
even figured out a way to get rid of those annoying "old-style" (and ugly) black lines that are supposed to be the propellers of the PAW aircraft. Charles' add-on files also correct the location of the hard-points for bombs and/or drop tanks on these aircraft.

Republic P-47N Thunderbolt: (p47n_mod.zip 6 KB)
by Charles Gunst.
This is a modified wireframe model to display the N version of the Thunderbolt.

P47D Paddle Prop: (Paddle-blade prop.zip ??kb)
by Claudio Wilches.
A paddle blade prop modification file for the P47D. Just unzip this 3dz file into your EAW directory, and feel the power of a Curtis-Electric 13' prop!

Messerschmitt Me-163A Komet: (me163a.zip 187 KB)
by Charles Gunst
The rocket interceptor of the Luftwaffe - for use with ECA Panel.

Gotha Go-229A Nurflügel: (go229a.zip 155 KB)
by Charles Gunst
A projected jet-powered Flying Wing of the Luftwaffe - for use with ECA Panel.

Dornier Do-335 Pfeil: (do335.zip 172 KB)
by Charles Gunst
A two-prop aircraft of the Luftwaffe - for use with ECA Panel. Two versions are included.

Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane: (sphu_mod.zip 560 KB)
by Paulo Morais
Paulo has glued cannons to both the Spitfire Mk. I and the Hurricane Mk. I to give us templates for different versions of these aircraft types.

Messerschmitt Bf-109E, Focke-Wulf FW-190A and FW-190D: (100s_mod.zip 526KB)
by Paulo Morais
These aircraft can now carry bomb loads and complete fuselage bands are now possible when skinning new textures.

Focke-Wulf Ta-152: (ta152_mod.zip 59 KB)
by Paulo Morais.
Paulo has stretched the Dora's wings and extended the fuselage. These are the wireframes Christian Mosimann has used for his Ta-152H.

Junkers Ju-87D/G Stuka: (ju87g_mod.zip 55 KB)
by Paulo Morais
Stuka wireframe with eliminated fuselage texture distortion, new wings and nose.

New weapons and gunpods: (bombs2_mod.zip 22 KB)
by Paulo Morais
This mod-pack unleashes the power of gunpods and other weapons. This way you can e.g. fly a real D or G anti-tank version of the Stuka.---Not compatible with Enemy Coast Ahead by Charles Gunst.

Mosquito Mk III: (mosquito.zip 92kb)
skin by: Max188 Improved 3d model provided by Stag and JWC.
This is a De Havilland Mosquito Mk III based loosely on the HT-E (RR299), a T Mk III which was built at Leavesden between October 1944 and July 1945. It was the last wartime Mosquito flying in the U.K. when it crashed at Barton Airshow on the 21st July 1996.

LW Drop Tank 1.0:
by Mosi.
...

No Prop Fix Wildcat and Hellcat: (f4noprop.zip 7.16kb  and  F6noprop.zip 10.2kb)
by Charles Gunst.
No prop fix for Hellcat and Wildcat. A "no prop" version of the F6F Hellcat 3D shape. The bomb and rocket points have been fixed so that they appear correctly under the wings.

Major 3DZ Modifications: (LW_3dz.zip 0.8MB)
by Martin Osranek aka Dolfo.
... June 5 2001...include new .3dz files like for the Ju87, the Bf109s, the Hurricane IIc, etc. ...

Upgraded Me109E (Me109E slot) wireframe: (3dz_me109e.zip 7.46kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
100Kg bomb hard point by Paulo Morais
Radio antenna
Underwing probe Requires TEX/TRA editing
Tropical filter Requires TEX/TRA editing
Smaller svastika
Reshaped tail section
Frontside cockpit windows Requires TEX/TRA editing
Reversible codes Requires TEX/TRA editing
Smaller propeller hub
 

Upgraded Me109F (Me109G slot) wireframe: (3dz_me109f.zip 18.5kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Frontside cockpit windows Requires TEX/TRA editing
Radio antenna
Wingtip probe
Lower fuselage antenna (Me109F-0 to F-2 didn't have it)
Underwing radiators
Tropical Air Filter Requires TEX/TRA editing
Reversible or fixed codes Requires TEX/TRA editing
Retractable tail wheel
FIXED Left side nose radiator texture
FIXED Nose radiator height
FIXED Wheel textures
FIXED Tail wheel position
Specific "gustav" model updates not listed.

 

Upgraded Me109G (Me109G slot) wireframe: (3dz_me109g.zip 18.4kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Radio antenna
Loop antenna (behind radio antenna) Requires TEX/TRA editing
Wingtip probe
Lower fuselage antenna
Underwing radiators
Tropical Air Filter Requires TEX/TRA editing
Reversible or fixed codes Requires TEX/TRA editing
FIXED Left side nose radiator texture
FIXED Nose radiator height
FIXED Wheel textures
FIXED Tail wheel position
Specific "franz" model updates not listed.

 

Upgraded above Me109G (Me109G slot): (3dz_me109g_naxos.zip ??kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with Naxos Radar.
This was a personal request from Hynkel.

 

Upgraded Me109K (Me109K and Me109G slots) wireframe: (3dz_me109k.zip 5.48kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Tail reshaped for "Wooden tall tail" Requires TEX/TRA editing
Underwing radiators Requires TEX/TRA editing
Radio Antenna Requires TEX/TRA editing
D/F Loop antenna Requires TEX/TRA editing
Underwing antenna Requires TEX/TRA editing
Underfuselage antenna
Wingtip probe
Svastika Requires TEX/TRA editing
Reversible codes Requires TEX/TRA editing
Provided in three (3) different files for tail wheel. See readme for more info.

 

Upgraded German 300lt droptank wireframe: (3dz_droptank.zip 5.81kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Reshaped to be more real
Paintable Requires TEX/TRA editing

 

Upgraded Heinkel 111 wireframe: (3dz_he111.zip 12.1kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Transparent svastika square

 

Upgraded Curtiss P-40D/E Kittyhawk (Tempest Slot) wireframe: (3dz_kittyhawk.zip ??kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Wheel doors
Wingtip probe
External view one-wing national marks Requires TEX/TRA editing
Internal view one-wing national marks Requires TEX/TRA editing
Reversible codes Requires TEX/TRA editing
Some minor fixes
See readme for more info. See Cockpit_readme for internal view changes.

 

Upgraded Curtiss P-40B/C Tomahawk (Typhoon Slot) wireframe: (3dz_tomahawk.zip ??kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Wheel doors
Wingtip probe
External view one-wing national marks Requires TEX/TRA editing
Internal view one-wing national marks Requires TEX/TRA editing
Reversible codes Requires TEX/TRA editing
Some minor fixes
See readme for more info. See Cockpit_readme for internal view changes.

 

Upgraded Spitfire Mk.1a (Spit1 or Spit9 Slots) wireframe: (3dz_spitfire1.zip ??kb)
by Capitán Manduca.
with the following features:
Clipped wings Requires TEX/TRA editing by Paulo Morais
2 x 20mm cannon barrels Requires TEX/TRA editing by Paulo Morais
Hardpoints by Paulo Morais
Radio Antenna
Left wing radiator
Underwing probe Requires TEX/TRA editing
4 x 20mm cannon barrels Requires TEX/TRA editing
These changes cover the Spitfire models Mk.Ia/b, Mk.IIa/b, Mk.Va/b/c (and LF). See example TRA files.

YAK-LaGG Prop Fix: (Yak-Laggpropfix.zip)
by Llv34_DOC.
These replacement 3DZ files should be used when flying the HR Bf 109G or any snapped planes in the Bf 109G slot. They avoid the 'non-transparent' propellor problem some have when flying any other aircraft in the 109G slot.

Longer Prop Fix for Tempest: (TempLongProp.zip 38.6kb)
by JWC.
A fix to correct the propellor of the Hawker Tempest aircraft in both rotating and static views. The readme file give further details. (TEMP Slot)

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