Arcade or Real life.......Think arcade

[SEwinks]

Courious..................... In WW2 most dogfights occured between 8-10k..........now why is it that u can fly to 15-20k and  your pilot won't blackout from freezing to death or lack of oxygen?????

[Golfer]

A rubberized oxygen mask was standard equipment.  There also little units called cockpit heaters which pump warm air from under the cowling into the cockpit.

Ever see B-17 waist gunners wearing their oxygen masks?  Ever see fighter pilots wearing those nifty masks which are not only designed to look cool...but be practical as well?


When it comes to the P-38 I remember reading it was notorious for giving pilots 'cold feet' and the P-51 had a reputation for being a bit toasty down at the rudder pedals.  I don't know the history of the Janitrol heater but it would make sense to install one in a P-38.  These little units just burn a small amount of fuel to produce heat...on the order of 0.25gph

[Krusty]

Yes, but even with oxygen masks, which had a very limited amount of O2, the heaters were ineffective, especially above 20k. When you get up to 30k+ in AH and can fly there until your gas runs out, it kills any realism.

[Golfer]

define a "very limited amount of O2"

I've seen the size of some of the oxygen bottles, and given their size and the lower pressures compared to the ones today I have a hard time believing that a pilot couldn't be on oxygen from engine start to shutdown.

I've got a portable oxygen system with cannulas that have more capacity than my bladder and any airplane that I fly's fuel supply.  I can carry it around with one hand and it only weighs a few pounds.

[Karnak]

Originally posted by Krusty
Yes, but even with oxygen masks, which had a very limited amount of O2, the heaters were ineffective, especially above 20k. When you get up to 30k+ in AH and can fly there until your gas runs out, it kills any realism.

Erm, they carried enough oxogen for hours of flight while on oxogen.  And the heater's effectiveness varried greatly from aircraft to aircraft.  In single engine fighters with the pilot behind the engine it was, oddly, not hard at all to keep the pilot warm.

On the contrary, in my recent delving into Spitfire Mk VIII service I have read several accounts of how uncomfortable it was to be doing low altitude operations in South East Asia sitting right behind that Merlin 66.  Apparently it put off a lot of heat.

[wetrat]

Originally posted by Krusty
When you get up to 30k+ in AH and can fly there until your gas runs out, it kills any realism.

Yeah, but there's a 3000000x factor of "boredism" when flying at 30k in AH. I think said boredism is a good substitute for "realism."

On a side note... you are aware that internal combustion engines produce heat regardless of the altitude, right? Something about explosions.... they get hot.

[Pooface]

Originally posted by SEwinks
Courious.....................In WW2 most dogfights occured between 8-10k..........now why is it that u can fly to 15-20k and  your pilot won't blackout from freezing to death or lack of oxygen?????

rofl, you serious?

planes were designed to fly high. the average engagement alt during the BoB was over 15000ft. in AH, we fly far too low, not the other way around lol. planes like the spit 14, with high alt engines were designed to have high alt engines because that's where they were flown.

[Martyn]

OK OK - I've connected my PC to my fan heater, so where's the Options menu for making the heater emulate the ones found in the planes? I'm freezing at 1k!!!  

[Zazen13]

Originally posted by Pooface
rofl, you serious?

planes were designed to fly high. the average engagement alt during the BoB was over 15000ft. in AH, we fly far too low, not the other way around lol. planes like the spit 14, with high alt engines were designed to have high alt engines because that's where they were flown.

That's exactly right, cruising altitude for fighters in WW2 was between 18-28k generally, that's where the fights occurred. Rarely did fights occur below 15k. Below 15k was the almost exclusive realm of ground attack planes.

Zazen

[Oleg]

Originally posted by Pooface
planes were designed to fly high. the average engagement alt during the BoB was over 15000ft.

Dont mix west and east fronts. At east front almost all fights was below 5km (~15000 feets). That is why most soviet fighters has their best perfomance at low alt.

[Zazen13]

Originally posted by Oleg
Dont mix west and east fronts. At east front almost all fights was below 5km (~15000 feets). That is why most soviet fighters has their best perfomance at low alt.

Yea, that was largely due to the fact the primary purpose of the soviet air force was ground support and both air forces lacked the large high altitude level bombers  the Brits and US had that required fighter escort and therefore drove fights higher.

Zazen

[SELECTOR]

biggest problem was condensation

[Pooface]

yeah


talking of high alt, any brits gonna watch space cadets tonight??

channel 4, 9pm, looks hilarious!!

for the people who are unfortunately unable to watch, they're basically taking a group of gullable people and telling them that they're going into space for 10 days, when infact they're sitting in a giant flight simulator

take a look!

space cadets site

[Delirium]

Originally posted by Golfer
When it comes to the P-38 I remember reading it was notorious for giving pilots 'cold feet'

P38 pilots often wore the same blue suits that the B17 gunners wore, they plugged into the aircraft electrical system and worked similar to a heating blanket.

It helped, but they still had issues with the cold and worse yet, the stiffness.

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by Delirium
P38 pilots often wore the same blue suits that the B17 gunners wore, they plugged into the aircraft electrical system and worked similar to a heating blanket.

It helped, but they still had issues with the cold and worse yet, the stiffness.

High alt 38 gear, MTO style.  1st FG pilot in 44