So is this a bug or a feature?

While playing Air AB, I have noticed lately that bombers seem to just randomly explode now when hit by the odd stray shot. In my most recent match, I played the B17 early, late and the PB4Y-2 and in each case I died, it wasn’t from getting wrecked by enemy fire or large calibre guns ripping my planes apart.

It was quite literally my planes just exploding when a couple of rounds, usually at distance, hit the fuselage igniting my aircraft like they were full to the brim carrying nitro glycerine bottles wrapped in hydrogen balloons finished in petrol rags with a dash of black power and TNT on the side.

Now I do actually find this quite amusing but at the same time rather annoying since it renders any kind of defence pointless. So I am getting the feeling that this is quite possibly a bug because surely no one at Gaijin would think “Hey I know, those pesky bombers have it far too easy with their slow speed, lumbering airframes and completely inaccurate and useless AI gunners. Lets balance that out with a dash of instant explosive death when an enemy plane, merely farts in their direction.”.

Has anyone else noticed this? And god forbid hasn’t seen it as a feature in the latest update?

This is not a bug but the detonation of the bombs in the plane’s hold. When playing at rather low BRs this kind of detonation is rare because the caliber of the planes’ weapons is not sufficient to trigger the explosion but when going up in Br, you meet planes with 20 or higher caliber cannons that can cause this kind of situation

Ye gads, so this is a “feature”? Wow, should have known. However, this also appears to happen even when I have dropped my bombs and moved away surely it shouldn’t occur then as well?

And why doesn’t this seem to apply to fighters or strike aircraft carrying bombs?

It does.

There’s videos of people teamkilling friendly jets by shooting their undercarriage payload.

I also saw a dude die to a downed CAS plane that had intact bombs left. Dude decided to shoot the bomb and drive towards it. Can’t find the video off the cuff alas.

Found this one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/1dkv5pf/this_idiot_shot_his_bombs_and_killed_everyone_at/

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Oh it definitely happens to fighters and strike aircraft. Twice today I’ve had my CAS get absolutely nuked seemingly from nowhere when carrying external bombloads. And I’ve done it myself to enemy CAS.

This topic is around a year old:

Is it realistic that bombs explode when shot?

Bomber exploding mid-air

Air modes: Cal50 detonate bombload too easily

Looks like you were extremely lucky in the last 12 months…

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Oh I didn’t even look at the date.

Well to be fair, I was on a long break from WT. Last I played before this week, bombs getting collision detection midair was new. Bombs blowing up in their bays or on their pylons wasn’t a thing yet.

Lol now that is some outrageous trolling going on in that video, :D thanks for that!

I think I must have been because I have never had bombers explode so often as I do recently. Not sure what they were smoking when they thought this was a good idea.

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It’s if the bombs get hit by a bullet it auto-detonates, and subsequent leads to the immediate grounding of your aircraft.

I personally like it, it means bombers that are just satelliting in the sky you don’t have to fully climb and get in gunner zones to take them out.