Why do Spitfires turn better than Hurricanes?!

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by Viper2000

Having met the man a few years ago I must say that I found him convincing, and most impressive.

don't get me wrong, the man is a LEGEND! I met him last year or two years ago at Duxford and I was honoured to shake hands with him! but as you pointed below..

The biggest problem with his books is the fact that the typist doesn't understand engine power settings and therefore incorrectly converts between psi boost and ata throughout the text, littering it with parenthetical errors which were obviously absent from the original manuscript.

de facto making it an interesting read, but not quite the reliable reference that we need

Actually he illicitly flew it under power in 1945; see the latest edition of Wings on my Sleeve. He also tested a number of piston engined types post war, most notably the Ta-152 (albeit with neither MW50 nor GM1) and Do-335.

now that's interesting! I have the older version, bugger!
The thing that you point about the Ta-152 happened with other planes as well: the incorrect use (or lack) of fuels meant that they were more general handling tests instead of performance ones.

I suspect that they did this after an engine failure in order to make the best possible use of a rare captured airframe; there might also have been some political purpose (both internal, so that DB could demonstrate their good works to their masters) or external (IIRC they were quick to suggest that the DB engine was an improvement).

apparently it was just a genuine performance test to see whether they could improve the handling of their 109s, have a look at this interesting article
http://www.unrealaircraft.com/hybrid/spitfire.php

Got it somewhere. It's interesting, though rather less technical than Brown's books. I seem to recall that quite a lot of emphasis was placed upon taking captured aeroplanes to German fighter squadrons so that they could see them up close. His observation that the B-17 was only fast due to its turbochargers is obviously correct, but of course all's fair in love and war!

I don't recall as much interest in tactical Mach numbers as was displayed by the Allies, because in the late war period the Germans often found themselves climbing into battle, whilst the Allied escort fighters were diving from on-high.

this proves though that surely there are other tests that have been made and data has been collected, sourcing it is another story though..