Anyone who wants a better turning 190 does not understand the basic concept of that plane.
The concept of what the plane is supposed to be is irrelevant.
The relevant matter is just what it can do in real life, that cannot be done in Aces High. If there is any clear evidence that Fw190s were able to turn better, or if it could use flaps (albeit a limited amount of degrees) up to higher speeds, then its worth looking into.
Dogfights were never meant to be merry-go-arounds like we have in AH. Be fast, catch your enemy suprised, use your manouverability and speed to get outta trouble if you have to.
That's the flight-sim gamer's view of 'dogfight'. We play a game-depicted version of WW2 planes where we can specifically compare and contest one plane against another in detail, against pilots with years of sim-flying experience.
We know (in this game) we can never outturn a Spit or match up against a P-51 in rolling scissors in Fw190s considering a more-or-less average grade of pilot skill, but real life combats actually in many cases involved vast amounts of mid to low speed turning fights in its element.
The so-called method of high speed "BnZ" passes was simply an ideal situation that may or may not present itself. Fighters under specific orders could not just run away and come back with an alt advantage at the pilots whim, like we can do in this game.
Unless your own flight meets the enemy flight with an initial alt advantage, according to circumstances there was always a possibility your flight would meet an enemy flight at co-alt terms, or disadvantaged in alt.
If the preferred combat method was always limited to
"be fast, catch your enemy surprised" the average number of sorties a combat pilot would actually fight an enemy plane would drop down to less than 1/3rd of the cases.
Also, in this game we play we pull 5~6G maneuvering at 400mph all the time without any kind of fatigue, however in real life a speed of anything even near 400mph would be a very scary thing a combat pilot must go through, much less a practical combat speed where a pilot was expected to actually maneuver and line up for a shot during the "boom" sequence of the bounce.
Pilots devised all kinds of methods to keep their speed under control - from opening the radiator flaps to increase drag, to overriding automatic pitch control and setting it to maximize drag if possible, and etc..
More often than not the given alt advantage would be limited. In this game if we have a 8k alt advantage in a plane like the P-51 we would use it fully and dive upto 500mph TAS. It is hardly the case with real life. After the initial bounce in many cases even P-47s would mix up with 109s in turn fights. The conventional "merry-go-round" fights happened a lot more in real life than you would imagine.
The comment that
"80% of the pilots shot down did not see their attacker" is misleading - it does not mean 80% of WW2 combat happened in a BnZ, but simply in all kinds of fights and occasions the plane that was shot down was in a multi-plane engagement and failed to realize that there was an enemy wingman behind him in that 'merry-go-round' fight.
I've never read any account of a 190 pilot that used flaps in combat. It would have been stupid. Needlessly slows you down in an enviroment where death lures in every cloud.
That "stupid method" is mentioned often in Nowotny's combat. He would pop down flaps momentarily to gain gun solution by pulling higher lead than possible without flaps.
Besides, if the use of flaps in a plane concept such as the 190 was useless, then it'd be more or less the same with a plane like the P-51 or the P-47. Strangely, nobody has yet mentioned using flaps in a P-51 or a P-47 was stupid, at least to my knowledge.
Developement of fighter planes was aimed at speed, versatility and firepower. Turning - if at all - is a defensive manouver. Oh, and don't mix turning with manouverabilty. In dogfight staying outta plane is a very important thing - the 190 does this perfectly with its unsurpassed roll-rate.
True.
But turning is never just defensive. Given rest of the conditions are equal a better turning plane always has the first initial advantage in anything it does. Compare the Spit14 or the La-7 with the Bf109G-10 - given the pilot conditions are equal a Bf109G-10 can never, ever win against a Spit14 or a La-7 at co-alt, co-E situation.
Turning is the first instinctive factor of air combat, and there is a good reason why "n00bs" know nothing but to turn.
As the emphasis and evolution of combat planes shifted towards speeds and firepower it is true that the importance of the traditional element of turning abilities have subsequently become less important - however, even still turning was a lot more important than we gamers would like to think.
I know RL and game world don't mix very well. But aren't doing sims to recreate reality as good as possible? Maybe something within the game-mechanics itself favours turners in AH... icons?... no fear of virtual death? who knows...
It depends on what kind of 'reality' we have in our minds. Not trying to be rude, but as with your case, sometimes misinformation tends to lead us to misconclusions about what the 'reality' was.
