Quote:
Originally Posted by JG52Uther
I would guess that they modelled RAF planes with the 100 octane stuff as standard.
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That would be my guess as well. However, i don't expect to see any groundbreaking performance gains when flying at high difficulty settings. Over-boosting the engine (war emergency power) was mostly done in two situations:
a) trying to catch a fleeing bandit who's faster than you
b) trying to escape, which means you've already screwed up and are on the defensive
Using it for any length of time on any aircraft will cause an overheat and if CoD's engine management is anything like the real thing, we can all forget pulling the throttle back briefly and then slamming it to the stops again, we'll probably have to fly by the book in higher difficulty settings.
The boost over-ride was not only usable with 100 octane, it was usable with lower octane fuel as well. The difference was how much more you could push the engine if you had 100 octane fuel, because higher octane fuel permits higher pressures in the engine.
To be honest, when flying with complex engine management enabled it would make minimal difference: anything above +6lbs or something like that is considered overboosting and will give you an overheat within a few minutes, regardless of fuel type. What's more, it could be a non reversible situation. The Spitfire had a pressure escape valve, so when the coolant would overheat and pressure in the coolant lines increased too much, it would be able to automatically reduce pressure and not break the lines by literally letting off some steam through the valve. However, this means that the coolant is escaping into the outside air, so the total amount of it is reduced and it's easier to overheat the second time, even easier the third and so on.
I don't know if Hurricanes and Me109s had a similar system, but seeing as they all used liquid cooled engines i wouldn't be surprised if they did.
The only tangible difference is that with 100 octane you might be able to push the engine to, for example, +14 lbs while the 87 octane fuel only permits +12 lbs and pushing any higher will cause detonation (engine knock) and irreversible damage. So, it's the available power that changes but it's still available for a very short amount of time.
Useful stuff at the top of a climb when you are in a "he who stalls first is dead" contest and in emergencies, but not something we will be able to run indefinitely like we can in the previous series of IL2.