Spit/109 sea level speed comparisons in 1.08 beta patch

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by bongodriver

But aren't you missing the point completely......you are not describing a turning engagement, the whole issue here is that if the 109 tried to engage in a 'turning' fight with a Spit it 'will' loose, there has never been any disagreement that the 109 had better speed to maintain an overall tactical advantage, the 109 could choose when to engage but the Spitfire was more than capable of evading, if you felt frustrated by that as a 109 driver and decided to try for a propper knife-fight with a Spit you were likely to lose, the 109's best tactic was to run in quick when an opportunity presents itself and run away quicker once the job is done.

I don't think I have missed anything, but it depends how you define a turn fight. And I am not meaning a 'propper knife-fight' at usually some low speed like 2-300 kph.

What I mean that if
- both the (+6) Spit and the 109E try a sustained turn contest
- near ground level (where the 109 has more power and is faster),
- and both are at or above about 400 kph and try to sustain that,

the Spit WILL loose that turn contest. The Hurricane even more so. As Jtd noted, its simply too hard to overcome some 30(+) km/h speed advantage, and the fact that parasitic drag will be dominant. The general advise is though (apart from don't turn with the Spit at low speeds) is that the faster the 109 turns, the better it is for its pilot.

The other comparisons (one plane flies sustained, the other unsustained, level outs and climbs etc.) I do not adress here. These tactics are essentially combinations of the best peformance envelope against the opponent's worst.