Spitfire supposed to dive better than the 109?

[Winger]

I experienced this now twice. i Dove after a fleeing spitfire. At around 780 IAS my 109 was loosing parts resulting in total failure while the spit just kept on diving pretty unimpressed.

Winger

[jf1981]

Are you sure he survived all right ?
That speed is more than the Spit can handle, it should overspeed from 725 km/h IAS.

[FFCW_Urizen]

i start loosing parts of my plane at around 400-450 mph IAS, depending on alt. Maybe you killed the pilot and the spit was just going in, but then otoh, i wouldn´t be surprised in a little dm hiccup.

[Fenrir]

Spitfire was known to have high Mach no., bout the .92 (from memory, don't flme if I'm wrong!). The 109 likely does not have such high an ultimate dive speed - where your advantage is, or more precisely should be in dive acceleration; you can bunt and initially outdistance a Spitfire in a 109 but given enough altitude I'd expect the Spitfire to gain eventually.

Also remember the Flight Models are still a work in progress - could be worth testing and taking to the Dev Team.

[CaptainDoggles]

Originally Posted by Winger

I experienced this now twice. i Dove after a fleeing spitfire. At around 780 IAS my 109 was loosing parts resulting in total failure while the spit just kept on diving pretty unimpressed.

Winger

I've never seen data one way or the other but IIRC, the Spitfire has the highest critical Mach number of any of the WWII piston fighters.

By comparison the 109 is a rather 'dirty' airframe.

What you're describing sounds correct to me.

[SiThSpAwN]

This one seems easy to test

[jf1981]

It should be stated that apparently, the controls were too heavy at such high speed, one could get out of th dive through use of the trim tab.

I don't know if it would be a good idea to implement such thing ...

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by jf1981

It should be stated that apparently, the controls were too heavy at such high speed, one could get out of th dive through use of the trim tab.

I don't know if it would be a good idea to implement such thing ...

I think there is a BugTracker report in that reports the Spitfire's roll rate as much too fast/responsive in a high speed > 400 mph dive, which should be implemented.

Up until the last Retail Version, the Spitfires would lose their ailerons at 420 mph IAS (between 10 - 15 K feet altitude), followed in rapid succession by the tail control surfaces. I would always throttle back when diving as a result to limit my speed to 400 mph IAS. Dutch gave me the heads up that the Spits can now go in excess of 420 IAS without falling apart, which I'll have to try out.

[Ze-Jamz]

Originally Posted by CaptainDoggles

I've never seen data one way or the other but IIRC, the Spitfire has the highest critical Mach number of any of the WWII piston fighters.

By comparison the 109 is a rather 'dirty' airframe.

What you're describing sounds correct to me.

Yep Ive read that numerous times from different sources..cant remember where though

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by jf1981

It should be stated that apparently, the controls were too heavy at such high speed, one could get out of the dive through use of the trim tab.

Originally Posted by ATAG_Snapper

Dutch gave me the heads up that the Spits can now go in excess of 420 IAS without falling apart, which I'll have to try out.

Both true. In fact when I did my dive tests, I pulled out using the trimmer exclusively. In the high speed dives, I need a lot of down trim and a lot of rudder trim, but got up to at least 440mph, maybe 450, but by that time I was more concerned with where the ground was.

P.S. I also brought prop pitch down to fully coarse, i.e. lowest revs.