P-38 - Was its size and shape a disadvantage?

[niklas]

Originally posted by MANDO
Niklas, which system did you use to calculate the number of pixels? it seems pretty decent to estimate relative flat areas also and drag.

Itīs a professional industrial vision software that you wonīt find on the public market. At the end itīs just pixel counting based on a enclosed contour with holes. And it should be obvious that the resolution of the shapes is not high enough in the picture. I had to fill the shapes with a black brush first  before doing the region search and anayzin. For example in case of the P-38 the computer does not know what "white" hole enclosed by black lines is "in" and "out" of the shape (for example the white area enclosed by wing, booms and elevator (tail hole) is out, but in any other aircraft area in)
I can do some other analyses too, but image should be prepared to minimize my work. That means ROI (regions of interest) should be filled with an unique color, then itīs easy, for example by running a threshold segmentation first to extract it.

But drag is much more complicated and canīt be calculated by pixel counting alone...

niklas

[GREENTENERAL]

For me at least, I find myself waiting a breif moment longer before I take a shot at a 38 (while flying the Dora).  Trying to make my shot count amidst the optical confusion, otherwise I usually just ping the wing.  When flying a 51D I have better luck coming from the bottom or top.  I am fairly new at this game, so my extra consideration (while flying something with cannon in central) may just be that I am not used to rapidly aquiring a focal point on the 38 yet.

[agent 009]

Steinhoff said the 38 was best US fighter. Buhligen said it was easy to burn. Very different views.

Perhaps Buhligen ran into early models, & Steinhoff ran into J's. Just speculation. He was in Italy early 44 I believe.

Buhligens comment is in an Ed simms book. The aces speak I believe. Simms wrote 3 books on fighter combat. The greatest aces, & Aces over the oceans the other 2. He was a P-51 driver.

Birdie Wilson, ( 600 missions ), & Schroer were a couple of the many pilots he interviewed.

[BUG_EAF322]

From what i have seen on my zeno warbirds dvd it looks like a manouvrable airplane with great climb..

none stalling problems and good acceleration from low speeds.

when it stalled it looked like it just hovered.

no wingdips at all good control at low speeds.

Than i saw it was flying low and fast it banked quickly and made a sharp turn.

Not what many people like to think not a slobby big truck.

Probably much alike our AH modelled plane .

Its bigness was a disadvantage as it made an easier target

Although pure frontal its pretty sleek.
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