Leading Edge Slats on the Me-109

[*Buzzsaw*]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

I agree. The hideous stalling characteristics of the 109 are the most important aspect of the 109-FM that needs improved upon. The real 109 was an almost foolproof plane in the air with gentle stall characteristics (and was so in Il-2FB), compared to the thing we have in the sim doing wild things for seemingly no reason.

There are a lot of myths about slats, and a lot of misunderstandings.

The 109's slats do not prevent stalls or automatically give the 109 a stall speed lower than other aircraft. The 109E stalled at speeds higher than the Spitfire I or Hurricane I. A stall is a stall, a loss of effective control of the aircraft by the pilot and a subsequent loss of height.

What the slats do is resist, not prevent the typical right or left wing drop and potential entry into a spin at the stall you see with other non-slat equipped wings, the typical level flight, power off 109 stall is a simple loss of control and gentle nose drop which allows for a quick recovery.

But the pilot still loses control. The aircraft stalls.

And, in accelerated power on stalls under G, the 109 could drop a wing, just like any other aircraft. The chances of this was less, but the slats did not exclude this possibility.