Originally posted by GScholz
All in all the AH2 La-7 is clearly, beyond a doubt, the best unperked fighter. Even if you add the perked planes I would only consider the Tempest, Me-262 and Me-163 to be superior, and only marginally with regard to the Tempest.
I believe you will have to qualify that by adding the term, "below 10,000 ft."
Let's say you are in an La-7 hustling along at 15k and you run into a P-51B on a reciprical heading. What do you do?
Well, let's examine the performance of each at 15k. That green Mustang is about 35 mph faster at that altitude. It climbs better by about 400 fpm at that height. Maneuverability is in the P-51B's favor, especially if speeds degrade to 200 mph, where the Mustang's flaps allow it to turn inside the La-7 without major effort. What do you do? If pilots skills are equal, it's just a matter of time before the P-51B is locked on the Lavochkin's tail. You can't climb away, you can't win by turn fighting, acceleration is close to equal and diving away won't help you as the P-51B handles better at high speed and can dive with just about anything. Frankly, you're in a pickle.
We have flown this scenario in the TA several times, with a decent stick flying the La-7. Every time, the Lavochkin gets clobbered. Not just beaten, but abused. Each time the La-7 had to head for the deck where it had the speed to make a fight of it. In this case, it didn't matter as he was forced to maneuver and the P-51B wins a turn fight most of the time.
We repeated the fight using a P-47D-40, with low gas (used a drop tank to get to altitude) and six guns, short clip. Again, the La-7 was in deep bandini from the merge. At high speeds the Jug is a dream, fast rolling, excellent stability. Dive acceleration is terrific. Oh, and let's not forget climb and zoom climb ability. At 15k the D-40 easily out-climbs the La-7. We let the fight spiral down to the deck (in this case, the sea). The La-7 driver built up some speed and went vertical. Imagine his shock to see that big 'ol Jug right there. Climb rate for a light D-40 exceeds 4k/min from sea level, and is still doing 3,800 fpm at 15k, that's just about 900 fpm better than the Lavochkin (both using WEP). Okay, what about a turning contest? The La-7 should handily out-turn the Jug, right? Wrong. Again, the superior flap system makes a huge difference. Two notches of flaps and the La-7 begins to lose ground. Another notch down and the Jug can pull lead for a shot anytime you want to. The only real option for the La-7 is to unload and run. Since it takes a few seconds to get the Jug cleaned up, the La-7 pulls out to 600 yards. Not far enough tho. He gets painted like a restroom wall and has to maneuver, rolling and jinking. That, however, cancels his acceleration advantage. The instant he stops maneuvering, he gets painted again. Before we broke off the fight, that La-7 took enough hits to kill it 3 or 4 times. He tried chopping power, slowing to nearly a stall. He dumped his flaps, nothing helped. I could kill my speed faster and had much better control at very low speeds.
Sound like nonsense to you? It's not. Configured as I flew it, it weighed about 12,000 pounds, divided by 300 square feet of wing and you have a wing loading of 40 lbs sq/ft. On the other hand, the La-7 with 50% fuel weighs in at about 7,200 lbs, with 189 square feet of wing, or about 38 lbs sq/ft wingloading. This gives a slight edge to the Lavochkin. However, we haven't factored in the P-47's slotted flaps, which increase wing area up to 13% when fully down. Even deployed only about 1/3, that provides enough to gain the edge on the La-7, and those flaps can be set there at speeds 50 mph faster than that where the La-7 can begin lowering its less effect flaps. Stall fighting the P-47D-40 with an La-7 is futile, the Jug owns the La-7 at 180 mph. Remember, the key is to fly the P-47 as light as possible, using external fuel to get you to the fight. It's also wise to understand that while you may be able to grind the La-7 into the ground in a stall fight, the odds are that some other guy is going to hammer you while you are low and slow. So, stall fight if you want, but you had better not be in an area where other enemy fighters are present, 'cause they will likely smack you.
So, am I saying the La-7 can't beat the D-40 Jug? Heck no! If the La-7 has a significant E advantage and the pilot maintains that advantage, the Jug is in deep trouble. There's no question that the La-7 is the best low altitude fighter in the game. Nonetheless, if you take it out of its element, it becomes rather average very quickly. It's a good fighter at 10-20k, but not a great one. There are great fighters at those altitudes and they can and will dominate the La-7 should they engage up there.
My regards,
Widewing
