Aircraft Performance

[ZaltysZ]

Originally Posted by usagold2004

It doesnt address low speed turning performance because I'm not sure how to figure that out.

It has nothing to do with turning. You must understand that different aircrafts have different climbing curves. Some can 'hang on propeller' and some can't. Those, that can, have lower deceleration at low speed, however they often does not shine at high speed. Little example. P51 and BF109 begin pull up at the same altitude and high speed; initially BF109 lags behind in gained altitude (it seems like P51 is getting way), however after sometime distance between BF and P51 becomes constant and eventually it begins to decrease. Smart P51 pilot will terminate its zoom at the moment distance begins to decrease and will enter level flight. The end result (height) might be the same, but the climb is almost always very different.

Try to test Spitfire and P51 in a way I have described in my previous post. It will took some time, but I think it will be interesting for you.

Originally Posted by usagold2004

For the data I put, you can see what to expect from a coaltitude enemy flying at max continuous power.

As I said before, you may get in trouble (obviously in virtual dogfight) because of false feeling about aircraft performance based on your results of test. I will explain. If you are in P51 and enemy is in BF, you both may reach the same altitude before stalling, however you may reach it at different time and because BF recovers from stall more easily and earlier than P51, BF will win. I am trying to say that one aircraft can have big advantage over other aircraft despite you test shows that they both reaches the same altitude before stalling.