Quote:
Originally Posted by Icewolf
who says the spitfire outturns the 109? show me the references from 1940
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Pilot accounts said the Spit turned better. Here's a quote from wwiiaircraftperformance.org -
http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit1vrs109e.html
"The RAE determined in Report No. B.A.1640 that "The minimum radius of turn without height loss at 12,000 ft., full throttle, is calculated as 885 ft. on the Me 109 compared with 696 ft. on the Spitfire." and that the corresponding time to turn through 360 deg is 25 seconds for the Me 109 and 19 seconds for the Spitfire. 73 (See also Me 109 and Spitfire. Comparison of Turning Circles and Spitfire and Me 109 Diagrams of Turning). 60 years later Dr. John Ackroyd, PhD, C.Eng, FRAeS of the Aerospace Division, Manchester School of Engineering, University of Manchester, and Fellow of The Royal Aeronautical Society, took a fresh look at this subject in his paper "Comparison of turning radii for four Battle of Britain fighter aircraft". He calculated the minimum turn radii to be 686 feet for the Spitfire IA versus 853 feet for the BF 109 E-3 - which is in very good agreement with the RAE's findings. 74 "
So, reading that WWII performance site, the Spit was faster, climbed better, and turned better. Oleg may have had to program the fighters closer just to give the 109s a chance.