Quote:
Originally Posted by Crumpp
Cruise climb is calculated as it varies with conditions and is of most practical value in a turbine engine. There are two approaches. Optimum Climb speed produces the best overall fuel economy. It seeks to balance the most altitude over time using the least amount of fuel with the most distance covered over the ground.
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The distance covered over the ground is utterly irrelevant, the RAF used a spiral climb at the start of the BoB, it may have been a bad choice, but it proves that they weren't in the least concerned with the distance over the ground, since in a spiral climb that is effectively zero.