Hi
I think tight turning ability is an overrated feature in flight sims, all the early war turn type planes essentialy became hi powerd monsters, best example spit14 or they were eaten alive by late war high power monsters, best example zero. Even if you examine the zeros sucesses, they all occured when it was about as fast or faster than its primary opponets, yes it could turn like a deamon but it was only a sucessful fighter when it was capable of genearlly keeping up with the enemy planes in speed and also outclimbing them. The zero was slaughterd in droves when hellcat came out. It could turn just as good as before, but now it was slow and climbed poorly compared to enemy planes. Turning doesnt do toejam in RL it just slows your bellybutton down so you can be shot by somebody else. More specifically about the SpitV vs 190 question, the RAF was scared to death of the 190. Thats a plain and simple fact. SpitV pilots avoided combat with 190 if 190 had co-alt. Spit pilots said 190s were much more agressive than 109 pilots who just tended to boom and zoom, while 190 would stay and fight spit in horizontal. Does this say anything specifically about 190 performance? No but it does clearly point out that the spitfires horizontal turning advantage over 190 didnt matter as much to spit pilots in RL as it does here. There was a famous argument between some spitV pilots and their commanders when they first faced the 190s, more or less it went like this. The commanders kept telling the pilots to use their superior flat turn against the 190. The pilots angrily replied that flat turning doesnt win air battles. Again nothing specific about airplane perfomance can be derived from that statement, but RAF fighter design policy for the rest of the war clearly reflects that pilots sentiments.
We then have spit 9 and 14 which were for most part boom and zoom type aircraft with high climbrates and speeds, reduced turning and in case of spit14 reduced handling. Do I need to mention Tempest? Plus it would be good to remember the RAF was just about to perform a suicide commando raid to capture a 190 in France, surely this plane scared the toejam out of them to a great extent if they were willing to sacrifice dozens of lives to get one. This raid never took place courtesy of Arnim Faber and his little navigation error.
Before anyone jumps on me for supposedly bashing spits or something like that, please just recognize the fact that spitV had a very very very bad time with 190, and that doesnt seem to translate well in AH. By the time spit9 came along it was a contest of pilot skill, and by the time of spit14 it was no contest at all as far as 190A is concerned. Basically turning ability is somehow overrated in computer flight sims compared to RL WW2 combat.
thanks GRUNHERZ
