Leading Edge Slats on the Me-109

[Crumpp]

Entering stalls/spins from a gentle deceleration in level flight is a very different affair from an accelerated stall.

The results of both coordinated and uncoordinated accelerated stall behavior are documented in the RAE report.

See:

4.4. Stalling Tests.

The Bf-109 exhibits typical LE slat equipped behaviors.

When the slots were fully open the aircraft could be turned quite steadily until very near the stall. If the stick was then pulled back a little more the aircraft suddenly shuddered, and either tended to come out of the turn or dropped its wing further, oscillating meanwhile in pitch and roll and rapidly losing height ; the aircraft immediately unstalled if the stick was eased forward. Even in a very tight turn the stall was quite gentle, with no tendency for the aircraft to suddenly flick over on to its back and spin.

When the Me.109 was following the Hurricane or Spitfire, it was found that our aircraft turned inside the Me.109 without difficulty when flown by determined pilots who were not afraid to pull their aircraft round hard in a tight turn. In a surprisingly large number of cases, however, the Me. 109 succeeded in keeping on the tail of the Spitfire or Hurricane during these turning tests, merely because our Pilots would not tighten up the turn suficiently from fear of stalling and spinning.

http://kurfurst.org/Tactical_trials/...ls/Morgan.html