A note on torque levels....
It is fairly commonly known that low airspeed and a sudden increase in power can overcome the flight controls in high performance WWII single engine fighters.
The Corsair was known as the Ensign Eliminator because it regularly killed neophytes who slammed the power on at slow speed.
The P-51 also could be difficult to control in this situation.
Griffon powered Spits were also "hairy beasts"
The P-51D, which I flew, was a very straightforward airplane in every way. By that I mean it wasn't difficult to fly or hard to handle, as long as you remembered a few basic things. First and foremost, you never forgot for a minute that it could bite hard if you got careless. There are lots of airplanes that will let you have another chance if you get ham-handed. The -51, in certain areas of her envelope, wasn't one of them. I remember telling everyone I ever checked out in the Mustang to take it up high, lower the gear and flaps, then back it off to about 15 inches with the prop up to 3 grand... slow it down easy to about 130 mph... then SLAM in 61 inches fast. The resulting torque roll might have helped save a few lives on full power go-arounds. None of my guys ever "torqued one in" anyway...
I was just talking to a WW-II Mustang driver about this subject yesterday. (55th FG, Duxford based) Before there were any TP-51s availalbe, the instructor pilot would take the new -51 driver up in formation and would demo slow flight and power application as part of the training syllabus from a safe (high) altitude. He recalls 120 kts, flaps and gear down and throwing the throttle to it. Once, he got 2 and a half snaps out of it before there was sufficient airspeed and control authority to recover.
In operational service many pilots initially found that the new fighter could be difficult to handle, particularly if they were used to earlier Spitfire marks. Don Healy of 17 Squadron, based at Madura recalled that the Mk XIV was;
a hairy beast to fly and took some getting used to. I personally preferred the old Mk Vs from a flying standpoint ... Even with full aileron, elevator and rudder, this brute of a fighter took off slightly sideways.
Of course, we don't see anything like this in game.
Again, this is just information. I don't want anything to change in the game. I just don't want folks thinking going from throttle stop to throttle stop at stall speed in a high performance single engine prop fighter was a piece of cake in real life. A lot of young men died learning these lessons. Lets not cheapen their memory.
