Tales from online; ignorance of energy....

[Laurwin]

Originally Posted by MaxGunz

I seem to recall accounts from the Russian Aces about which planes could not chase or run from from Bf109's and in another case a Bf109 pilot that only managed to get out of a dive through extremely careful use of trim.

From what Gunther Rall who flew German and captured US planes wrote, it should be the P-51 and P-47 that are the highspeed dive champions. I dunno if he ever flew a P-39.

After running my own tests I saw how top end in a dive accounts for so many accounts I've read. But still, no one just dives away from bullets with only a 200m head start and a straight path.

This is true and Icefire is also right in his last post there...

I remember one encounter online in full real. I was flying mustang in 1943 against fw190A.

After a some manouvering, I got onto fw's six.

Focke wulf simply thought he could dive away from me and he started diving quite rapidly.

I immediately dived after him, slowly getting closer to gun range

I was getting closer, then the focke wulf went into even deeper and deeper dive

After maybe 2km of diving, the ocean level was getting awfully close to the focke wulf. He crashed into the ocean like a comet or something

Focke wulf didn't respect mustang's better speed and dive capability, and he paid the price.

(I didn't get the kill in game server rules, but it was manouver kill in real life rules)

[MaxGunz]

The acceleration, by the numbers, just isn't that great. Those planes accelerate at far less than 1G in addition to gravity that is only 1G when you go straight down. Even if your plane does accelerate faster than the other, the major factor in both is gravity which is the same for both. The pull-away isn't one stopped and the other dropped which would still allow for shots.

You need some initial angular separation or a surprise maneuver to create that like Robert S. Johnson had done in his mock 'combat' with the Spit. He out-rolled the Spit and broke, by the time Spit pilot got back on his trail he had distance and speed to pull a reversal while the Spit pilot still hadn't figured out what was happening let alone be ready to respond.

If you want to start a dive real fast, roll over and use your lift as it is the most powerful force you command in a WWII fighter. If you have the speed to pull 6G's then your biggest problem may be avoiding lawn darting. A follower that doesn't roll with you will overshoot and never catch up if you manage to not crash. Just hope you don't get shot to bits in the setup!