@Wargame_Enj0yer BF1942 also had useful anti-air weapons on vehicles. They could do more than scratch damage.
Desert Combat, the 'modern day' predecessor mod that arguably kept 1942 relevant and bringing in new players, and saw DICE buy the group that made it, and helped set the development for Battlefield 2 being the success it was, also had effective AA. The SA-3 & Patriot guided missiles were absolutely deadly in the right hands. They also had handheld stingers that functioned like the BFV Fliegerfaust.
Air vehicles were also nowhere near as tanky. One SA3 missile would destroy a jet. No extinguisher, no autorepair, bam, dead. It meant pilots had to be real good.
It was also much harder to pilot helos in Desert Combat than it was in later games.
Unfortunately BF2's anti-air was very weak (especially in maps without the mobile AA), and the stationary stingers were death traps, and also suffered from the "magic flares" that plague the series.
