Soda's Aircraft Evaluation Pages                    

Introduction:

A heavy attack aircraft in medium bomber clothes, the A-20G has proven to be a fairly popular and useful aircraft.  It’s much more than just a bomber without a bombsight, it is usually employed a low/medium altitudes in a dive bombing role, against ground vehicles, or wherever it’s size/durability will allow it to take more punishment than a normal fighter or attack plane. That’s not to say it’s an easy kill either, it has a quick and deadly punch for those who don’t respect it, but overall it’s not a good fighter by any stretch and shouldn’t be considered as such.

Engine Performance:

Surprisingly impressive for such a large aircraft, the A-20G can be difficult to catch/intercept.  Sea-level cruise speed while carrying ordinance (internal and external) is 300mph.  Once free of ordinance it can turn 315mph while use of WEP brings that to 320mph.  Typically as an attack aircraft you will be carrying both internal and external ordinance on the way it but once free of that burden your out-bound speed is good. Acceleration is excellent for a bomber though not up to fighter standards and the low top end speed tends to make it tough to achieve those last couple of mph near the top.  Climb rates are good, 1,700ft/min at sea-level and slowly decreasing above that, roughly double that of a normal bomber.  WEP is limited to 5 minutes of continuous use so should be saved for combat or emergencies. Fuel consumption is reasonably high but so is the amount of fuel that can be carried.  A fuel economy sweet-spot appears at 6K where fuel consumption is 60 gall/hr under sea-level though the situation quickly changes as by 7K fuel consumption is 8 gall/hr more than sea-level and doesn’t improve until 11K. You should certainly be careful to load the correct amount of fuel also as 25% internal isn’t going to get you very far (16 minutes or ~80miles) without using WEP at any point.

Firepower:

There really isn’t that much to choose from.  Standard are six fixed .50cal nose guns with 350 rounds/gun.  This is a punishing arrangement for anything you get in your sight but the firing rate is very high so total firing times quite short.  There is also a dorsal twin .50cal turret to help protect your aircraft to the rear with 400 rounds/gun.  The turret gun has restrictors in place to not allow you to fire through your aircraft and thus there are areas to the rear masked by your aircraft. The restrictions are not nearly as serious as on some aircraft but there are plenty of blind-spots and areas totally unprotected where fighters can sit.

The main purpose of the A-20G is to haul bombs though and you have options for either internal and/or external carriage.  Internal bombs are loaded in the hanger on the right-hand side, external on the left, and each position can contain up to four bombs in the 500lb class.  Total bomb-load is thus a hefty 4,000lbs between the two carriage points.  Add on the nose firepower for strafing and you have a total bomb-load equivalent in upwards of 6,457lbs, quite impressive.

Maneuverability:

Very good, especially considering the size and weight of the aircraft.  Roll rate in general is weak and the energy bleed in extended turning is not good.  In a fairly narrow speed range between 250mph and 350mph the A-20G has to be respected.  Vertical zooms are very impressive at speed, actually amongst the best in the game, because the mass of the aircraft helps carry well.  Acceleration at low speeds is also decent although you don’t want to get to where you need to recover from low-energy situations.  Speed tolerance is good though you will start to get structural creaking at ~350mph.  You can push through this if required as structural failures aren’t typical until ~460mph or more under light maneuvering.  Long shallow dives like those used to exit a target area should be fine though and your speed should carry well making interception difficult.

Flying the A-20G

People really need to respect the A-20G more, there are some very good sticks in it and it can very dangerous if you get sloppy around done.  Most A-20’s like a hit-and-run style though so don’t hang around to play with fighters.  You will also see a lot of A-20’s used to defeat enemy vehicles, the mass of the aircraft allows it to survive multiple large caliber hits from AA vehicles that would normally destroy a fighter instantly.

Offensively, you don’t want to be playing fighter all that much, and if you do, not all that long.  The A-20G can make brief forays into the area of fighter-combat while you still have energy to burn but you should also exit before the situation evens up.  The A-20G can be a good B’n’Z type aircraft as it is fairly tolerant of reasonable speeds and reclaims a lot of energy in the post-attack zoom climb.  Anything that gets in front of you should be swiss-cheese given the nose guns.  As a dive-bomber, I tend to like steep attacks to be most accurate with my bombs but that’s just personal preference and allows me to drop only 1-2 at a time and get hits.  Make sure you drop your external bombs first, they cause the most drag and impact your roll rate the most as they are wing mounted.  Be sure to open your bomb-bay for your internal bombs, nothing is more frustrating than diving in and getting the message that your door as close when you try and drop.

Defensively, stay fast and keep maneuvering.  Use speed to take the fight vertical if you can, don’t jump into the dorsal gun and try to defend using that.  If you can, recruiting a second person to gun can make the A-20G super effective in defending itself, using the maneuvering to avoid cumulative damage in one spot and to un-mask your dorsal turret for return fire.  If you can, dive away, the A-20G appears to accelerate very well in a dive and then maintain that speed well once you level out.  Most people in an A-20G end up too low after dive-bombing but if you have a few K of alt to use then it may serve you well.

Fighting the A-20G

Be patient, it may appear to do unbelievable things to start but the A-20G is still very vulnerable once it runs out of energy.  A patient attacker will keep safe and force the A-20 to maneuver and burn energy, then will saddle up and blast it to pieces.  Watch for anything that looks like an overshoot situation and protect against it, if you happen to overshoot into the guns of the A-20 you won’t last long.  Also, be very careful around the A-20’s vertical capabilities.  It zooms in the vertical very well if it has energy, combined with it’s easily aimed nose mounted guns, can make you feel helpless if you get caught at the top of a zoom.

Lag style attacks are best as they keep you in a defensive blind-spot from the dorsal guns and give the best view of the A-20.  Just be careful not to over-shoot in your lag pursuit.  If an A-20 is making an attack on you, use a quick turn or roll to avoid, building energy to equalize that situation as quickly as possible.  The A-20 is not a strong roller and all fighters can easily out-roll it.  The A-20 also cannot stand very fast situations that could be generated in a dive at high speed.  Be very cautious though that you can keep out of dangers way early in your dive, the A-20 has a knack for accelerating quickly in the initial part of a dive and can catch some people unexpectedly.

Summary

The A-20G is a useful and fun aircraft to fly though not really meant to play in an area full of fighters.  It does tend to attract a lot of attention as an “easy kill” but that can be to its’ benefit to attackers who get careless or over-aggressive.  It does have limits and any decent fighter pilot should be able to defeat an A-20G without too much trouble.  It seems that a lot of people are using the A-20G as an anti-vehicle aircraft, which is actually a very wise use, as it has sufficient ordinance to deal with armor and enough toughness to survive a couple of hits in return.  This use also keeps it close to home and less likely to encounter enemy fighters.