Originally posted by BaDkaRmA158Th
Question: Because wep on alot of fighters is "like" puting the throttle to the wall.
does that mean without wep such said aircraft are actualy only operating at 80% engine capacity?
No. Each engine manufacturer created power ratings for thier engines. For example, the R-2800 used in the earlier Jugs was rated for 2000BHP at 100% power. The WEP rating was 2200BHP, or 110% power. The manufacturer guaranteed the USAAF a certain amount of engine life (i.e. time between overhaul so to speak) when the engine was run within the manufacturer's established limits. Pratt & Whitney said that it was acceptable to run the engine at 110% for up to 5 minutes at a time, but no more than that or the pilot ran the risk of doing damage to the motor. Furthermore, after a single engine accumulated a certain amount of hours above 100% rated power, it had to be inspected, etc. Pilots were required to fill out forms that listed how much time they ran the engine above 100% rated power after they landed each mission. What's more, there was also a bit of a "blue falcon" effect as well (I can't spell that one out but the B stands for buddy and the f, well you can imagine) since if you flew the plane one day, your buddy might fly it the next. If you screwed the motor up from overboosting the engine, it might be his butt on the line because you degraded the engine performance the day prior. Obviously, over time, certain engines would get tired, even though they were still in the planes, and not be able to generate the same performance. So, pilots were encouraged to take care of the engine as much as possible. We only read stuff like the tactics they used, when they shot down planes, and what the book values of performance were for the planes we fly. In reality, there was much more pilots had to deal with on a daily basis. It wasn't simply firewall the throttle, pull g's, and shoot like we do. Cylinder temperatures, turbine speeds, intercooler flaps, cowl flaps, oil cooler flaps, radiator flaps all had to be managed during flight to ensure the plane performed as advertised. Flying for 8 hours or more, with most of it over enemy territory or the Pacific Ocean encouraged folks to take care of the aircraft during combat, even though at times, especially when in tight situations, they may have pushed it to the edge for short periods. To not do so would have, theoretically, shortened the life of the engines, or worse.
