Something about the p51 I've never understood

[Karnak]

It is the #1 fighter in AH tour after tour.  Yes, some of that is due to fame, but fame alone wouldn't hold it there if it weren't also very capable.  Some people just have this idea that it should out turn an A6M, out run an Me262 and out climb an Me163, after al it was "THE BEST FIGHTER OF WWII!!!"

[Die Hard]

Yes, it "WON THE WAR (tm)"!

[Steve]

Take the fight up to 25K,

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Soulyss]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

No?  I'll admit it's been awhile since my Pony days but from what I remember it did pretty well up there.

[Steve]

No?  I'll admit it's been awhile since my Pony days but from what I remember it did pretty well up there.

I just don't want you puttin ideas of flying around at 25k in anyone's head.   

[Soulyss]

 

[bj229r]

What WE need are a buncha 25k bases!

[vonKrimm]

What WE need are a buncha 25k bases!

Can't do that as we don't have any duece-and-a-halfs, 5-tons, or bulldozers in AH.  Maybe the up-date will include those?

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

Alot has to do with the boost the vents give the aircraft, in most configurations it added 5-10mph more, also the paint being removed helped even more, paint was common place while airbases were still under threat from the germans and such.

simply put, lots o' things.

I have been reading a good book about the p-51's development, very interesting stuff.

[TwinBoom]

How do you take an engine from a lightweight fighter,  (Spit)  put it in a heavier fighter; and turn it into a high performance, long-range fighter?

supercharger

[Guppy35]

supercharger

Spits had two stage superchargers as well as of the VII and on.  In the end it was the wing design, the abilty to cram all that fuel into the 51 and the Merlin that did the trick.  They did eventuall add small leading edge tanks in the Spit as well as a small fuselage tank, but it was never going to be in the amount that they were able to get in the 51, along with the 108 and 110 gallon drop tanks.

[Karnak]

supercharger

Where does the idea that Spits were low altitude fighters like P-39s come from?

[Die Hard]

Where does the idea that Spits were low altitude fighters like P-39s come from?

Ignorance.

[BnZs]

It is the #1 fighter in AH tour after tour.  Yes, some of that is due to fame, but fame alone wouldn't hold it there if it weren't also very capable.  Some people just have this idea that it should out turn an A6M, out run an Me262 and out climb an Me163, after al it was "THE BEST FIGHTER OF WWII!!!"

No, we have the idea that it should out-turn a P-47 and out-accelerate a Tempest, because, oddly enough, they had that idea in WWII.

P-51 is just does not hang with the other 3 "most populars" as a fighter under MA conditions. It isn't up there with some fighters that have 20 ENY either. Its good but not so good as to explain its popularity or why it so greatly overshadows planes that can do the same job while bringing their own strengths to the table, like the D9, Typhoon, N Jug, or F4U-1A. Markets are never completely rational.

[Die Hard]

In real life the P-51 had about 200-300 more hp from mid-1944 onwards. The modelled P-51's don't.