Originally posted by Beurling:
Hmm i thought i read in a earlier thred that 3g's at low speed was best in a low speed turn.
Once you are below corner speed, you get the best turn rate, and smallest radius by flying along the stall line, that's the left most line on those diagrams. The higher up that line the better, the snag is of course that none of the aircraft can sustain a higher position on that curve than the point where the sustained turn rate curve joins it.
If you check the Spitfire curve, you see it has a 5g stall speed of 200mph, a 4g stall speed just under 180mph and a 3g stall speed close to 155mph. The turn rate is better the higher you go, up to corner speed, but the highest SUSTAINED turn rate is where you said, 2.8g at 150mph.
Where the lines intersect is cv for the planes?
Corner velocity, is the highest point on the curves for each aircraft, the apex if you like, and for the aircraft on those diagrams you can see it is:
P-38L = 273
P-51 = 260
F6F = 233
Spit = 219
Generally, a lower corner speed implies better instantaneous turning performance. So ranking the aircraft above in order, gives:
1) Spit
2) F6F
3) P-51
4) P-38
The P-38 is last! Now if you use the diagrams above to look at the difference between the Spitfire and the P-38... You see a very large difference. Especially when you consider that current thinking among real fighter pilots is that any more than a two degrees per second sustained turn rate advantage would be decisive.
The spit turns best at 15o mph with around 2.8 g's?
That's its best sustained turn rate, with 25% fuel, no wep, and no flaps.
Ive been wondering about this because ive been trying 3 g's at 150 mph. I felt some times there was more turn rate left.
In the configuration I've quoted above, you can't pull 3g at 150mph, unless you use the wep or drop the flaps, or fly around in circles until you get lighter
I would love to see 51 vs 38 with flaps.
So would I, and I'll be doing diagrams that include flap deployment later on, at which time I'll be able to do numerous overlays. Unfortunately these things take time, and that's one comodity I'm short of right now
Personally, I've always been interested in the P-38 v Spitfire because I've often read the opinion that they would have been evenly matched. Indeed, I've seen many folk make quite vocal claims for the superiority of the P-38... But not in Aces High
Leon "Badboy" Smith
[This message has been edited by Badboy (edited 01-07-2001).]
