Quote:
Originally Posted by klem
[...]
Currently we have a workable Merlin engine model. The engine does cut, as IvanK has demonstrated, and more sensibly than it did before. No it won't STOP if only due to windmilling and if I understand Viper correctly he is saying that there may still be combustion occurring at some level. The 109s still have an advantage diving away.
[...]
|
A dead engine should windmill if the prop is not feathered, simply because you're driving an airfoil through the air at an angle of attack. It's like blowing on a pinwheel, except you're blowing at 200-300mph. The difference is that instead of the engine providing the energy to turn the prop, you forward airspeed is being sapped to drive the system.
In a piston engine, if the crank is rotating, and the spark plugs functioning, once the fuel/air mixture reaches a combustible ratio, provided nothing else is wrong, the engine will start. This include the entrance conditions of either no fuel at all, or no air at all, though in the no air case, I would be worried about other systems failing before the correct fuel/air ratio is resumed.
That was one of the things that bugged me about the engine modeling in late Il-2: if the engine was shut down, for whatever reason, the prop was glued in place until you tried to restart, and then the restarts were always flaky at best.
Turbines and turboprops are a different kettle of fish, because they've got a howling gale going through them when in the air, which they don't in a ground start.