I'm just screwing around with the SDK trying to export a chopper.... your right though, I had forgot that in NEWSA many choppers blow up instantly because of the firepower!! In my game they spiral out of control into the deck, so a carcass would look good (like Black Hawk Down).
Another idea was I could just increase the amount of trash from helis. For example, at moment you get one rotor blade, why not two or three!!
I think the fire would be OK, as after the explosion the fire is a pretty simple particle effect, not much more than a campfire to be honest. At the very least I can now remove the car parts that spawn from a dead APC.
My current guess is the dead one spawns exactly where the other dies, but you probably would not see any momentum if the APC was moving, the hulk would stop dead.
Anyway, I'm off to watch a film now, I probably won't get much time tomorrow to try these things out, but I'll be back on the case on Monday.
Catch you soon.