Tactics for Cliffs of Dover.

[Matt255]

"The RAE determined in Report No. B.A.1640 that "The minimum radius of turn without height loss at 12,000 ft., full throttle, is calculated as 885 ft. on the Me 109 compared with 696 ft. on the Spitfire."

Those are calculations with wingloading only, which would only make sense, if both planes would use the same airfoil (and if the 109 would have washout or the Spitfire wouldn't have washout). Those numbers mean nothing.

But whatever, most sources (both german and british) say, that the Spitfire turned better then 109 E. However, that's pretty much the only real advantage the Spitfire has. Both have about the same speed and climb, the outcome depends on energy and how long the pilot can use maximum power before overheating.

The 109 can climb steeper (not faster), can roll faster at low to medium speed, can dive faster, has the better armament (imo), the better forward view (makes deflection shooting easier, the Hurricane has a better forward view then the Spitfire aswell), has no problem with negative G, has a relatively harmless stall behaviour.

I think both planes will be "balanced" when modelled as realistically as possible in a PC flightsim.


And of course, when we're talking about realism here, we won't see only Spit vs. 109 E. We'll see way more Hurricanes and both the Hurricanes and Spitfires should (probably won't) take the bombers out asap. Of course there are also some 110's around to mix it up. And the Hurricane is not really that good against 109's.