[horseback]

Okay, here's the final installment in the 100m series: late war USAAF, Mid war Spitfires and the Mid war Bf 109 series.

I added the Mustang III and the P-47D (Late)to the USAAF fighters out of curiosity; I normally avoid the 'pumped up' stuff unless I feel that the original offering was less than accurate. I must say that the rankings of the US fighters seems a bit off; the P-38 should be the champion at all altitudes, at least from start (170mph) to about 350 mph indicated, so the L (Late) sort of restores the natural order. Every resource I have says that this was the case, and that the P-47 and the Mustang were neck-and-neck once the Jug finally got a propeller worthy of the R-2800. The P-47M was supposed to be faster to accelerate than the D/K Mustangs (when it worked). Bear in mind that both the Lightning and the Jug used turbosuperchargers, which allowed them to use every bit of the engines' horsepower from the ground right up to around 30,000 ft, so their performance in terms of IAS was fairly consistent.

Note also that the D model Mustangs are significantly superior to the razorback versions (less the Mustang III) at low levels; this is consistent with the fact that the earlier models were optimized for high altitude, so if you're going to take it down in the weeds, a bubbletop is the better choice.

As for the Bf 109s, I should point out that for the G-2 I experimented with closing the rads once I reached about 400 kph indicated but left them in Auto for the G-6. The G-6 rarely overheated, but the G-2 would overheat pretty quickly once the rads were closed--the payoff is that you will get faster sooner. Note that in every case, the automatic transmission of the LW fighters makes them initially slower to accelerate than their Allied counterparts, but once the transition is made, the speed can pick up quickly.

One of the things this project has helped me with is to identify not only which aircraft have the better response in terms of power (and where), but which ones handle better, i.e., which ones require less trim or have the more reliable instrument displays (critical for flying level or in proper trim). Being aware that the 'ball' has to be offset a bit to one side or the other in some aircraft in order to be properly trimmed is a handy thing to know. I'm probably a much more effective pilot as a result.

Next stop: 5000 feet or around 1500m.

cheers

horseback