"He simply opened the throttle and... there was no perceptable increase in acceleration. 'Himmel!' Tank cried as he was rapidly overhauled by the superior American fighters. Descending in a parachute later, Tank thought to himself "Ach, der plane ist eine crappenfleugen, und definitely not vorth 20 of der perkies! I vill vork on der copy of der free LA7 uberflieger!"
RFOL!
Seriously, Wilbus and Heinkelv - why don't both of you sent to Dale or Doug what is wrong and how they should fix it?
Here is my take...
When I was modelling planes for SDOE, one the hardest elements in aircraft design was getting the weight to power ratio right. There are three elements to an aircraft's power: torque, rpm, and horsepower. 1 Horsepower is the unit of power equal to 745.7 watts or 33,000 foot-pounds per minute. Torque is the amount of pulling power at an RPM of an engine. The final key is RPM - the rotation per minute of an engine at 100% military.
The major problem I had was figuring out engine torque at what RPM setting. Torque gave the aircraft it's acceleration, climb rate, and top speed. If the torque is wrong, it throws everything out of wack: accelerate too fast or too slow, incorrect climb rates and the roll rate.
I often had to lower horsepower and add torque. Point in case was the A6M5 Zero a friend and I made from an Fw190. I had my friend (a 3D model expert) work on the body while I worked on the physics. I adjusted the weight to that of a Zero (4,136lbs empty). Corrected the fuel tank size and it's weight properties. Then I reduced horsepower to a true-life Zero (1130hp) at 2800 RPM's. Problem was that it's top speed was too fast and it's acceleration too slow coupled with a slow climb rate.
Since HP = TorquexRPM / 5252
1130hp = Torque X 2800rpm /5252 = ~2100
If I lowered horsepower, it should fly slower. If I increased torque, it should increase acceleration. I also knew that historically the Zeke was a slow (350 top speed at 20'000ft) but nimble plane. It accelerated quickly at slower speed to about 300mph where it took time to reach it's max acceleration at altitude.
Setting engine horsepower to 1030 and the torque to 2100lbs-ft the aircraft never reached top speed at altitude. After juggling the numbers for a while (2300lb-ft of torque at 1000hp), it accelerated properly, reaching top speed in 4 minutes at altitude, and an initial climb rate of 3400fpm. Roll rate was close enough (+-5%) and it was as nimble as you would expect from a Zeke.
The problem in designing aircraft was related to the virtual environment. It's not real - it's simulated. As a result, I had to adjust numbers to reflect the environment my model is flying in.
Based on what everyone is talking about here, it seems in AH the engine torque for the 152 is off by a few hundred pounds.
I hope this helps explains what needs to be fixed. I am not sure what kind of environment model HTC uses but I'm guessing it's like SDOE's.
