It's troubling that a dropping or grounded chutist armed with a small caliber weapon can bring down a plane with the same effect as a plane's larger caliber weapons. It would seem this was likely not the case in WWI. Perhaps the number of required hits could be doubled or tripled to reflect actual effect? Any thoughts?

Would be nice to puchase an automatic rifle limited 15 round magazines 2 mag's per soldier.....and a much better site control for the soldier

It was apparently put in to help protect the parachuting pilot. Parachutes are barely period correct, and not for scout planes until the very end for the Germans. Being armed with a rifle is goofy; where would you put it in the cramped cockpit? Taking down another aircraft at range while twisting in a chute is also not realistic. Having a rifle with that ammo capacity is not realistic. Realism was set aside for game play, though The rifle gives a tremendous advantage to defenders.

Well range is another issue. But it's way too easy to start firing and bring down the craft that just killed you, and just the right difficulty to kill a chutist in the air or on the ground. I say limit range of rifle and effectiveness of shots.