We’ve got a new developer diary from Jason Williams and the Combat Pilot team. This time around its an early look at progress being made on the model for the F4F Wildcat and on the model of the Mark 13 torpedo. Let’s have a look!

Wildcat progress

Its still the early days of development on Combat Pilot, however, it is nice to see how things are progressing and get a bit of a peek behind the curtains. The latest developer diary talks all about the F4F Wildcat, its place in history as the US Navy’s primary fighter during the Battle of Midway and beyond, and some of the tactics used including the Thatch Weave.

The images released, including 5 below (and more on the diary), show off the modeling work. We can see both the exterior model details as well as interior ribbing on the wings and control surfaces. This kind of detail work has benefited the visual damage model so its likely the case here too. The engine is not yet in the airplane which does give it an odd appearance for now. Finally, we can see the wing folding mechanism.

We also get a look the Mark 13 was an air dropped torpedo used by the US Navy during the Battle of Midway (and after). The torpedo was of an appropriate weight for use on aircraft, however, a number of defects and the slow speed at which the torpedo needed to be dropped limited its usefulness. At the Battle of Midway, 35 out of 41 torpedo bombers were shot down without scoring a single hit and an evaluation by the Bureau of Ordnance found only 31% to have satisfactory performance.

Perhaps in the sim we’ll manage a better result! The model meanwhile looks superb.

Check out the full developer diary update on the official Combat Pilot forums.