WoW!
 

I was just in a mission and my engine got hit.. it caught fire.. and the engine then blew a rod or something because there was an additional bang and when that happened the flames around my engine bulged out and resumed burning.. and mind you the plane that hit me was already gone.. I have never seen that before!!

Probably a fuel tank exploding. I don't think DT changed the damage mechanics like that.

There are a few changes to the DM that you might find surprising :)

A few different fire effects too... fire with lots of smoke and clean burning fire on a smaller scale too. Very interesting stuff!

Previously engine fires were handled inconsistently for different planes. Single engine fighter's burning engine fire was likely to explode the whole plane before pilot could bail out. For multi-engine planes engine fire did nothing. Some planes only had extra fuel tank damage so that engine fire could spread to fuel tank fire. But many planes were previously completely immune to engine fire, like P-38 for example. Now engine fire will not make single engine planes explode. Instead engine fires will seize the engine after some time. Player can try to shut down the engine in order to cut fuel flow and extinguish the fire, but the engine might not restart anymore. So dive & high speed is safer way to put out engine fire. Stressing the engine lot when it is on fire is more likely to cause it to fail with a bang and it can even fall off from the mounts. This is probably what happened to Bearcat.

Well it didn't fall off but I was just pleasantly surprised as I had never seen that before.. I have also noticed that AI plots are more likely to bail now when the plane catches fire.. ;)

Wether it falls of or not depends mostly (not only) on the model. Older models didn't have their engines modeled seperately with a unique visual damage model.
With engine exploding (not the whole plane - just the engine), it can make more damage to the plane and even hurt or kill the pilot (shrapnells).

Will older models eventually be reworked to take advantage of improved DM?

I get a kick out of the new intermittent flame effects, and the different types of flame now seen. Really adds a lot of character to an aircraft's waning moments! http://www.mission4today.com/images/smiles/042.gif