Shooting an enemy plane down makes its gear come down

Mess Room
1

Some time ago I noticed, that after shooting an enemy plane down, its gear went down.
It’s not relevant for the gameplay, but surely this is not planned.
I had already seen this before on enemy planes that I shot down.
My own gear went down as well yesterday after I was shot myself, I have just checked the replay.

Alive, gear up:

shot_2024.09.06_10.31.44
shot_2024.09.06_10.31.441920×1080 133 KB

Next second, AA kills me:

shot_2024.09.06_10.32.52
shot_2024.09.06_10.32.521920×1080 195 KB

Notice my gear has come down because of my death.
Perhaps to make the landing more comfortable?
But I’m dead already :laughing: and so is my plane

shot_2024.09.06_10.34.04
shot_2024.09.06_10.34.041920×1080 112 KB

3 Likes
2

wow i didnt knew this feature,

3

I had it before in the USA AP-1.
Head on crash with enemy plane, we both went down, I jumped out my plane (apparently not completely destroyed or dead yet) and as I fell to the earth, I watched my AP-1 with the wheels down, which were up when I was still in it.

4

It’s a bug - has been reported from a long time ago

1 Like
5

Ok cool I will look it up and second it.

6

The problem is that it always happens, but it would be a nice flavour if due to damage airplane gear would have a chance to go down due to loss of hydraulics (I think some planes had that as a feature in case they failed, so the pilot could land semi-normally, in others that was oversight/unplanned).

7

Pretty sure it only happens when people bail out (perhaps only when the plane is still controllable)
I think it used to be a signal of the pilot surrendering (kind of like putting your hands up)

8

I also had it when I bailed out, but also when I was insta killed inside my plane, like in the Zero pics above, I did not bail there.