The game is not optimized for bombers, it is optimized for fighters.
There used to be events, bomber escorts, etc. where it had approximate parameters of air combat…
This way, you can just look for a route in the bomber where you will not be seen for as long as possible. And that by airspawning at a height, or by flying just above the ground and hoping that you will reach the target… but that can also be interesting, but mostly only at low BR, max 3.0…
Maybe it could go like this…
Bombers will circle at the same height above the home airport before fighters reach them, it doesn’t matter if they are single-engine or twin-engine…
Attack aircraft and close support aircraft would be prohibited in air battles, they would only be allowed in ground battles…
AI ground targets would be limited or completely canceled, only bases, factories and maybe bridges would remain. Ground targets would appear when the game would evaluate that no aircraft has any more bombs.
Fighter bombers would have only 1-2 bombs up to 250 kg, or only missiles, nothing more.
Simply force players to climb and cover bombers and bombers would have to understand that they only have a chance of survival in formation…
The battle would simply have to be configured in much more detail…
But this has been discussed here so many times and the game system is still the same…
You play for yourself in a bomber and until you reach the selected target, you must not be illuminated by markers for as long as possible…
That is the basic essence of a bomber game…
It is always the same when “new” models come out - the planes got spammed and most of the time the “wrong” guys fly them. I killed several of the SWE/NOR guys today which clearly never flew or fought a Mossie.
From my perspective your expectation to get multiple drops / bomb runs in an average bomber is way too optimistic - and does not really reflect the reality at least at prop BRs.
Besides some rare exceptions (like the gift Tu-2 at 4.7) most bombers lack the necessary performance (=speed) for multiple runs - and even if their performance is quite good like the P1Y1 the payload is a joke and not worth the effort.
Imho the best strategy as mentioned by @Mahrs is to avoid enemy contact in the first place - and this works even it needs a hell of patience. This whole escort topic is pointless as long as:
Bombers don’t change the outcome of matches
Fighters don’t have direct or indirect benefits for covering bombers
Gaijin spams air spawn fighters like there is no tomorrow
In other words: As a passionate pilot you need to find a workaround to find a way to make a bomber work whilst not being a plain SL/RP source for enemies.
These workarounds can work - Example:
I wanted to check out if there is an option to fulfil these “kill 20 bases” special tasks in a very short time and i wanted to test the effectiveness of the German Incendiary bombs C 250 and C 500. So i flew out the Do 217 E at 4.3 and spaded it - and yes you can kill 4 bases (1 C 500 kills a base) in one match in one run - but not with sideclimbing.
The only way that worked was reverse climbing behind my own airfield and waiting for an opening in the fight - meaning all enemies are spotted, u have an idea where they are and you can assess if a run will be successful or not. The 217 climbs extremely poor even just with internal loads - you need ages to get even close the contrail alt on standard maps.
Long story short:
In those cases when it was obvious that i can’t make it to all bases and safe back to my airfield as my team died like flies, i simply landed and left.
In those cases when just 1 or 2 enemy fighters where alive or were just a latent threat as they were way lower the rather very high speed of the 217 helped me when I started a run covering all 4 bases in a wide loop and flew back to my main airfield. The 217 is able to stay around 700 kmph in slight dive for ages and is hard to catch.
And ofc it is advantageous if you activate one or two useless 5 minutes orders at the right point in time to avoid blind hunt and avenger orders.
24 matches, 15 wins and just 1 plane lost (due to very slight overspeeding) whilst never get shot at and used once my gunners to scare a Spit away.
But - this strategy needs time. Time to climb behind you airfield, experience to track enemies (or to anticipate their location) and also willingness to accept some matches with zero points.
It is way more effective to get these “kill 20 bases” special tasks by keeping guys in Bv 238s alive. Flying ahead of a Bv 238 in a B7A2 scares a lot of guys away, and if you drop just a single 60 kg bomb on a base and the Bv238 destroys it later you can get multiple base bills with almost zero effort. I see from time to time Brigands doing the same bomber escorts with good results.