Quote:
Originally Posted by Furio
This sounds obscure to me. As far as I know, there’s no reason a “big wing” should produce more drag in a turn than a small one.
As a rule of thumb, you look at wing loading (Kgs x square metres, or lbs x square feet) to evaluate stalling speed, but you must look at span loading (Kgs x metre, linear, not square) to evaluate efficiency and low drag in a turn.
My feeling is that Spit FM is pretty good, and that we should look with suspicion at our feelings without hard numbers.
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Ok then lets look at some hard numbers. Take a Spitfire-F-IXc-M61-15 with full fuel and turn the engine off, and glide at 280kph (160mph). Measure the rate of descent passing thru 2000m (5.1m/sec). This aircraft weighs 3377 kg in game.
Now try the same with a 109G2, you'll find this lighter aircraft (2846kg) has a much higher rate of descent of 6.2 m/sec at 280kph.
That Spitfire wing is really something...