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General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Gaston on May 17, 2018, 02:22:03 AM

Title: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on May 17, 2018, 02:22:03 AM
  Wingloading (Normal loaded weight per square foot)

1-Spitfire Mk V:  27 lbs

2-Spitfire Mk IX/Hurricane Mk II: 30 lbs  (+11%)

3-Me-109G-6/FW-190A-4: 40 lbs  (+33%)

4-P-51D: 43 lbs (+8%)

5-P-47D: 44 lbs (+2%)

6-FW-190A-8: 46 lbs (+4%)

  1 to 6: (+58%)  (Mk IX) to 6 (A-8): (+47%)



1-S/L J. B. Prendergast of 414 Squadron recorded in his Combat Report for 2 May 1945 (Mk XIV vs FW-190A-8):


 I observed two aircraft which presumably had just taken off the Wismar Airfield as they were at 800/1000 feet flying in a northerly direction and gaining height.-------The other E/A had crossed beneath me and was being attacked by my No. 2, F/O Fuller. I saw my No. 2’s burst hitting the water--------The E/A being attacked by my No. 2 did a steep orbit and my No. 2 being unable to overtake it broke away.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


2-RCAF John Weir interview for Veterans Affairs (Spitfire Mk V vs FW-190A-4 period): "A Hurricane was built like a truck, it took a hell of a lot to knock it down. It was very manoeuvrable, much more manoeuvrable than a Spit, so you could, we could usually outturn a Messerschmitt. They'd, if they tried to turn with us they'd usually flip, go in, at least dive and they couldn't. A Spit was a higher wing loading..."

 "The Hurricane was more manoeuvrable than the Spit and, and the Spit was probably, we (Hurricane pilots) could turn one way tighter than the Germans could on a, on a, on a Messerschmitt, but the Focke Wulf could turn the same as we could and, they kept on catching up, you know."

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This same pilot underlined: "It is crucial in combat to be objective as hell about what is going on"

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3-Gray Stenborg, 23 September 1944 (Spitfire Mk XII): "On looking behind I saw a FW-190 coming up unto me. I went into a terribly steep turn to the left, but the FW-190 seemed quite able to stay behind me. He was firing at 150 yards-I thought "this was it"-when all of a sudden I saw an explosion near the cockpit of the FW-190, upon which it turned on its back." (Stenborg was killed the next day in a head to head engagement with a FW-190 over Poix)

 Osprey Aces Series. "Griffon Spitfire Aces"

------------------------------------------------------------------


4-"-Squadron Leader Alan Deere, (Osprey Spit MkV aces 1941-45, Ch. 3, p. 2): "Never had I seen the Hun stay and fight it out as these Focke-Wulf pilots were doing... In Me-109s the Hun tactic had always followed the same pattern- a quick pass and away, sound tactics against Spitfires and their superior turning circle. Not so these 190 pilots: They were full of confidence... We lost 8 to their one that day...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


5-Johnny Johnson "My duel with the Focke-Wulf": "With wide-open throttles I held the Spitfire V in the tightest of vertical turns [Period slang for vertical bank]. I was greying out. Where was this German, who should, according to my reckoning, should be filling my gunsight? I could not see him, and little wonder, for he was gaining on me: In another couple of turns he would have me in his sights.---I asked the Spitfire for all she had in the turn, but the enemy pilot hung behind like a leech.-It could only be a question of time..."


(Jonhson escaped when he abandoned the turn fight, and dived near a Royal Navy ship that fired AAA at his pursuer)


---------------------------------------------------------------------


Quote, "On special Missions,KG 200": (early captured Razorback without full power available, and with needle tip prop) "The P-47D out-turns our Bf-109G"

 Bf-109G vs P-51B comment: "The P-51 has a dangerous stall which killed two of our pilots."

 Source: On Special Missions: The Luftwaffe's Research and Experimental Squadrons 1923 - 1945 (Air War Classics)



-----------------------------------------------------------------




A translated Russian article from "Red Fleet" describing Russian aerial tactics against the German FW-190, from Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 37, November 4, 1943.

 Quote:


-The speed of the FW-190 is slightly higher than that of the Messerschmitt; it also has more powerful armament and is more maneuverable in horizontal flight.


-They interact in the following manner:
Me-109G will usually perform dive and climb attacks using superior airspeed after their dive.
 FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken,  preferring left turning fights. There has been cases of such turning fights lasting quite a long time, with multiple planes from both sides involved in each engagement."

  -Since the FW-190 is so heavy and does not have a high-altitude engine,  pilots do not like to fight in vertical maneuvers.

-A fairly good horizontal maneuver permits the FW-190 to turn at low speed without falling into a tail spin.

 -Being very stable and having a large range of speeds, the FW-190 will inevitably offer turning battle at a minimum speed.

 -In fighting the FW-190 our La-5 should force the Germans to fight by using the vertical maneuver.


---------------------------------------------------------------------


Osprey "Duel" #39 "La-5/7 vs FW-190", Eastern Front 1942-45:

 P.69 "Enemy FW-190A pilots never fight on the vertical plane.---The Messerschmitt possessed a greater speed and better maneuverability in a vertical fight"

 P.65 Vladimir Orekov: "An experienced Fw-190A pilot practically never fights in the vertical plane"


-----------------------------------------------------------------


  Osprey, "P-47 Thunderbolt units of the 12th Air Force".

 P.32: 15th May 1944, 87th Fighter squadron operational report (Paddle-blade propellers only started to be delivered to the group in late May 44, and only with new aircrafts, so all these are needle-tip props, which does explain in part their turning performance).

 That afternoon, the 87th FS took off (16 aircrafts) with 32 X 1000 lbs bombs underwing to add to the destruction in Acquapedente. Target: Acquapedente bridges.

 "A flight of 15 Me-109s and 5 FW-190s was encountered. One section kept the fighters occupied while the remainder attacked the bridges. Three enemy fighters were destroyed for one of ours damaged.

 A gratifying result of this engagement was that a P-47, not considered a low-altitude aircraft, can maneuver advantageously with Me-109s almost on the deck, even though under the handicap of being on a bomb run." [Meaning 2 X 1000 lbs of bombs underwing...]

----------------------------------------------------



  Part II in my next post. No math slaved and instrument deprived WWII test pilot was harmed during the making of this compilation.

Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on May 17, 2018, 02:24:39 AM
"The P-51 Mustangs of Major George Preddy" EC # 100, Eagles Editions limited.

 P.20: "Preddy spotted two 109s and got into a Lufbery with the first one. Neither was gaining much advantage when all of a sudden another 109 cut in front of him."




--------------------------------------------------------------------




 Quote from an Oseau demise witness (Jagdwaffe, "Defence of the Reich 1944-45" Eric Forsyth, p.202): "Many times I told Oseau the FW-190A was better than the Bf-109G........ Each turn became tighter and his Bf-109 (Me-109G-6AS) lost speed, more so than his (P-51D) adversaries."







---------------------------------------------------------------------------




Osprey, "RAF Mustang and Thunderbolt Aces", P.42:

 Sq. Lt. Hearner (No 19 Sq) commenting 11 April 1945 battle over Lister airfield (P-51 Mk IV vs late Me-109Gs or Ks):

 "The 109s we encountered were obviously an experienced bunch of boys. Their turning circle is decidedly better than ours at low speed. The lowering of 20 degrees of flaps may just enable us to hold them in the turn, although I feel they could outclimb us."



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------





In "Le Fana de l'Aviation" #496 p. 40:






Première citation : " Dans la journée du 29 avril, le régiment effectua 28 sorties pour escorter des bombardiers et des avions d'attaque au sol et 23 en protection de troupes, avec quatre combats aériens. Les premiers jours furent marqués par des échecs dus à une tactique de combat périmée dans le plan horizontal, alors que le Spitfire était particulièrement adapté au combat dans le plan vertical."




 [Translation: "The Spitfire failed in horizontal fighting, but was particularly adapted to vertical fighting."]

 

  P. 40-41: " A basse et moyenne altitude, la version VB était surclassé par les chasseurs allemands et soviétiques de son époque. Pour tenter d'améliorer la maniabilité et la vitesse, les Soviétiques l’allégèrent en retirant les quatre mitrailleuses ainsi que leurs munitions, ne laissant que les canons. Cette variante fut évalué par le centre d'essais des VVS au cours de l'été de 1943. Apparemment ce ne fut pas concluant, car il n'y eu pas d'instructions pour généraliser la modification."




  [Translation: To improve the Spitfire Mk VB's maneuverability and speed  to the level of contemporary Soviet and German fighters, the four outer .303 machineguns were removed. This attempt at lightening the Spitfire was not conclusive, and the modification was not widely adopted.]







----------------------------------------------------------------------





1946 US evaluation of FW-190D-9: "1-The FW-190D-9, although well armored and equipped to carry heavy armament, appears to be much less desirable from a handling standpoint than other models of the FW-190 using the BMW 14 cylinder radial engine."




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




 
Donald Caldwell wrote of the FW 190 D-9’s operational debut in his "The JG 26 War Diary Volume Two 1943-1945" (pages 388 – 399): "The pilot’s opinions of the “long-nosed Dora”, or Dora-9, as it was variously nicknamed, were mixed. The new airplane lacked the high turn rate and incredible rate of roll of its close-coupled radial-engined predecessor."




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------








Reichlin assessment team report of Dec 10, 1941 (FW-190A-1 vs Me-109F): "In terms of maneuverability, it (FW-190A) completely outclassed the Me-109. The Focke-Wulf could out-turn and out-roll the Messerschmitt  at any speed."







-------------------------------------------------------------------------------







"Dogfights" Episode 16 "Death of the Luftwaffe" dealing with the January 1st, 1945 "Operation Bodenplatte" airfield attacks:




"FW-190As fought at lower altitude and engaged in turn fighting, while the Me-109Gs attacked in dives from a higher altitude."







-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Eric Brown ("Duels in the Sky") p. 128:




  FW-190A: "Care must be taken on dive pull-out not to kill speed by sinking, or on the dive's exit the FW-190 will be very slow and vulnerable."




 






Stability and control committee, "S.C. 1718", 24 April 1944:



    P-47D vs FW-190A-6 at low altitude:




   "The FW-190 tended to black out the pilot." [Meaning: Abrupt deceleration from tail-down sinking, thus poor pull out angle yet still high Gs]




   "The P-47 had a much greater speed and a decidedly better angle of pull out (after 3000 ft. in a 65 degree dive)."



   



    Red Fleet, No. 37, November 4, 1943.:




 "When climbing in order to get an altitude advantage over the enemy, there is a moment when the FW-190 "hangs" in the air. It is then convenient to fire." [This is in the context of dive pull-outs] -"However, the FW-190 is never able to come out of a dive below 300 or 250 meters (930 ft or 795 ft). Pulling out of a dive, made from 1,500 meters (4,650 ft) and at an angle of 40 to 45 degrees, the FW-190 falls an extra 200 meters (620 ft). [Meaning after levelling out, continues sinking nose up]




Vertical-maneuver fighting with the FW-190 is usually of short duration since our planes have a better rate of climb than the German planes" -Since the FW-190 is so heavy and does not have a high-altitude engine, pilots do not like to fight in vertical maneuvers: Success may be achieved by constantly making vertical attacks."




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




 
  Quote, 1989 SETP test: "Heading Change Time (180 deg at METO, 220 KIAS at 10,000 ft.)

FG-1--8.5 sec / P-47--9.7 sec / F6F--9.9 sec / P-51--10.0 sec






  Quote 1989 SETP test: "AIR-TO-AIR TRACKING 210 KIAS at 10,000 ft. (straight & level into a 3g turn to the left building to 4g followed by a hard reversal into a 4g right turn.)


FG-1 best, followed by P-47, F6F and, trailing badly, the P-51."






-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------






 RAE Tactical and technical trends, Nov. 5-11 1942:

 -"Maneuverability--Except at lower speeds-around 140 MPH(!)- The FW-190 is superior and will out-turn the P-38" (FW-190A-4)

 -1943 RAE test: "The P-38G and FW-190A-4 are roughly similar in turning ability"


 Combat of a P-38G against a Me-109G:

   Lt. Royal Madden from the 370th FG, 9th AF, July 31, 1944

“Approximately 15 Me 109s came down on Blue Flight and we broke left. I then made a vertical right turn and observed Blue Two below and close and Blue Four was ahead and slightly above me. I glanced behind me and saw four Me 109s closing on my tail fast and within range so I broke left and down in a Split S. I used flaps to get out and pulled up and to the left. I then noticed a single Me 109 on my tail and hit the deck in a sharp spiral.

 We seemed to be the only two planes around so we proceeded to mix it up in a good old-fashioned dogfight at about 1000 feet. This boy was good and he had me plenty worried as he sat on my tail for about five minutes, but I managed to keep him from getting any deflection. I was using maneuvering flaps often and finally got inside of him. I gave him a short burst at 60 degrees, but saw I was slightly short so I took about 2 radii lead at about 150 yards and gave him a good long burst. There were strikes on the cockpit and all over the ship and the canopy came off. He rolled over on his back and seemed out of control so I closed in and was about to give him a burst at 0 deflection when he bailed out at 800 feet.

 Having lost the squadron I hit the deck for home. Upon landing I learned that my two 500 pound bombs had not released when I had tried to jettison them upon being jumped. As a result I carried them throughout the fight.”




---------------------------------------------------




Spitfire Mk V vs Spitfire Mk IX, RAE (Royal Air Establishment) comparison:




 Manoeuvrability 
20......... The Spitfire IX was compared with a Spitfire VC for turning circles and dog-fighting at heights between 15,000 and 30,000 feet. At 15,000 feet there was little to choose between the two aircrafts, although the superior speed and climb of the Spitfire IX enabled it to break off its attack by climbing away and then attacking in a dive. This manoeuvre was assisted by the negative 'G' carburettor, as it was possible to change rapidly from climb to dive without the engine cutting. At 30,000 feet there is still little to choose between the two aircraft in manoeuvrability, but the superiority in speed and climb of the Spitfire IX becomes outstanding.


  Part III in my next post. No math slaved and instrument deprived WWII test pilot was harmed during the making of this compilation.


Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on May 17, 2018, 02:31:21 AM

--------------------------------------------------





  [Note below very inferior FW-190A handling while being an "estimated 400 mph target", and pulling "streamers at the bottom  of an elongated loop" after which the pilot behaves as if he is blacked out, despite the elongation of the loop: Again tail down high deceleration sinking...]




 


http://www.spitfireperformance.com/mustang/combat-reports/20-murrell-2dec44.jpg




 


"Dogfight at 500 ft."--"Then he stopped cutting me off as I cut throttle, dropped 20 degrees of flaps and increased prop pitch"--"Gradually I worked the Me-109G away from the field and commenced to turn inside of him as I reduced throttle settings."




   
"I learned to fly with the "Cannon-Mersu" (MT-461). I found that when fighter pilots got in a battle, they usually applied full power and then began to turn. In the same situation I used to decrease power, and with lower speed was able to turn equally well. I shot down at least one Mustang (on 4th July 1944) in turning fight. I was hanging behind one, but I could not get enough deflection. Then the pilot made an error: he pulled too much, and stalling, had to loosen his turn. That gave me the chance of getting deflection and shooting him down. It was not impossible to dogfight flying a three-cannon Messerschmitt."
 " When the enemy decreased power, I used to throttle back even more. In a high speed the turning radius is wider, using less speed I was able to out-turn him having a shorter turning radius. Then you got the deflection, unless the adversary did not spot me in time and for example banked below me. 250kmh seemed to be the optimal speed. (160 mph)"
- Kyösti Karhila




------------------------------------------------




Gunther Rall: "They (Rechlin) told us this new FW-190A could out-turn our Me-109F (900 lbs lighter than G), HOWEVER, I could out-turn it"




---------------------------------------------------




Rechlin assessment team report (1942):
 "In terms of maneuverability, the FW-190 completely outclasses the Me-109. With light positive controls making it easier to handle, the FW could out-turn and out-roll the Messerschmitt at any speed.


-----------------------------------------------------




Werner Seitz: "I liked the FW-190 very much. It was a much better airplane than the 109. You could curve it, you could fly fast... You could do everything with that aircraft. It was wonderful."




https://youtu.be/R0YLLBvIBFk




FW-190 vs BF-109 Werner Seitz

youtu.be

An old LW pilot on those two birds. High quality! Must see for every LW fan. Horrido!
 
 


--------------------------------------



  P-47D vs Me-109G [probably gondola equipped]: "We got to the deck. After 3-4 climbing turns I managed to get in a position to fire a deflection shot... We continued in a climbing lufberry indicating 140 mph."




http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/p-47/er/78-mcdermott-25may44.jpg


   

-------------------------------





  P-47D vs Me-109G [likely gondola equipped as well, given the turn-climbing]. "We had no difficulty turning or climbing with them."

 
      http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/p-47/er/78-luckey-19may44.jpg



---------------------------------------------------



  (P-47Ds) "We started turning with several 109s and were having no difficulty doing it at 23 500 ft., with full tanks" "The E/A (109s)started to turn [12 000 ft.], and we out-turned them immediately."




http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/p-47/er/78-covelle-19may44.jpg





-------------------------------------------------------



  P-47D vs FW-190A-8 (December 1944): "We fought a running and turning fight Eastward during which I was out-turned several times which necessitated climbing and allowing the E/A to run [Eastward]."




http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/p-47/er/78-bonebrake-19dec44.jpg




-------------------------------------------------------




Stability and control committee, "S.C. 1718", 24 April 1944:




  P-47D versus FW-190A at Low Altitudes:




Turning above 250 mph:




  "The P-47 easily out-turned the FW-190 at 10 000 ft., and had to throttle back to avoid overrunning the FW-190. The P-47's turning superiority increased with altitude. The FW-190 vibrated excessively (at higher power) and had a tendency to  black out its pilot. [Again, pitch up tail-sinking deceleration]




  Turning below 250 mph:



  "The turns were made so rapidly it was impossible for the airplanes to accelerate, and the ability of  the FW-190 to hang in its propeller and turn inside the P-47 was very evident."




Eric Brown: "Duels in the Sky" P. 128:




 "The  critical point  at which the change in  trim occurred was around 220 mph, and it could easily be gauged while turning: At lower speeds the FW-190A had a tendency to tighten up the turn,  but backwards pressure was necessary above 220 mph"




  -------------------------------------------------



  Me-109G (possibly gondola equipped)  vs P-47D at 140 mph on the deck:




  William M McDermott, 26 May 1944: "I got to the deck in time to see white leader destroy a 109. As I banked away with my element to rejoin the formation I saw another 109 coming head on. The enemy aircraft and I both banked to the left at the same time. After 3 or 4 climbing turns I managed to get into a position to fire a deflection shot, using about two rings and observing no hits. We continued in a climbing Lufberry using full power and indicating 140 mph. I used two and half rings and observed a few hits on his tail surfaces. We continued circling for approximately another full turn when he suddenly snapped and spun in."


  -------------------------------------------------------

 
P-51D vs 1945 late Me-109Gs or Ks:

 

Sq. Lt. Hearner (No 19 Sq) commenting 11 April 1945 battle over Lister airfield (P-51 Mk IV vs late Me-109Gs or Ks):
 
   "The 109s we encountered were obviously an experienced bunch of boys. Their turning circle is decidedly better than ours at low speed. The lowering of 20 degrees of flaps may just enable us to hold them in the turn, although I feel they could outclimb us."




-------------------------------------------------------------



  Gunther Rall (274 kills) on the Me-109 and FW-190:


  "They complemented one another. The 109 was like a rapier, the 190 was like a saber."




Rapier:(https://www.medievalcollectibles.com/images/product/icon/SH1024.png)



Saber:(http://www.darkknightarmoury.com/images/product/icon/AH-3317.png)


 
Red Fleet, No. 37, November 4, 1943.:

"-They (FW-190s and Me-109s) interact in the following manner:
 Me-109G will usually perform dive and climb attacks using superior airspeed after their dive.
 FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken,  preferring left turning fights."


 ----------------------------------------------------------------

  No math slaved and instrument deprived WWII test pilot was harmed during the making of this compilation.


  Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on May 17, 2018, 07:22:43 AM
Hi Gaston, been a while.    :D

You've got turn rate, turn radius, and climb rate comments.   :aok
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Blooz on May 17, 2018, 07:32:42 AM
I give it an "A"...


for "anecdote".
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Puma44 on May 17, 2018, 10:39:11 AM
Great stuff!  :aok
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: MiloMorai on May 17, 2018, 11:33:44 AM
Looks like quotes from Mike William's site.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Chalenge on May 17, 2018, 06:40:26 PM
And none of that matters.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on May 17, 2018, 08:10:56 PM
I see Gaston is back.  People should do a search of these forums for the old Gaston posts for some good laughs.


Gaston, how is your failed game that you were making doing?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Guppy35 on May 19, 2018, 01:51:40 AM
Curious as to where you are headed with the quotes?  Is there a point you are trying to make?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: bustr on May 19, 2018, 05:06:11 PM
Almost looks like he wants our 190-A family to out turn everything on the allies side and auguring nose up when one of our guys does a suicide run on a field radar tower during pull up. Given he has found after action reports and interview snippets to support that but, it's not a broader information view with extensive test results. Pilots in real life will ten to fly concerned for living and not push their rides to the max of insane maneuverability like we do in a kiddy game. The G6 was kind of average compared to it's earlier siblings.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on May 19, 2018, 08:51:51 PM
As I mentioned, read some of his previous posts here over the last ten years.  Gaston has never played this game, he is a failed game maker that was trying to make some flight sim oriented board game and was trying to show how in his "game" that his "flight model/physics" was far superior.  You can even search the old Ubisoft IL2 message boards and you'll find the same posts from him trying to claim the same thing about IL2's flight model compared to his board game.  The funny thing is that Gaston bases his claims mostly from pilot's anecdotes, not physics.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Oldman731 on May 19, 2018, 09:09:46 PM
The funny thing is that Gaston bases his claims mostly from pilot's anecdotes, not physics.


And yet, the quotes are accurate, and are consistent with my own understanding from reading pilot accounts.  I don't doubt that HTC uses the best objective information available to it, but the pathetic turn performance of the 190A series, for example, just doesn't match with real-world accounts.  Perhaps it has to do with something mentioned in one of the quotes, that the 190's controls were very light.  We (well, OK, "I") often overlook the fact that pushing our controllers around requires no real effort, regardless of the speed at which our crates are virtually traveling.

- oldman (and I recall that AW's P-47 was based on the best objective information available to Kesmai, and certainly there was a world of difference between that P-47 and HTC's.)
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on May 20, 2018, 07:12:25 AM
Nothing in the posted anecdotes shows a problem with the FW-190A or any other flight model.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Vraciu on May 20, 2018, 09:08:54 AM
As I mentioned, read some of his previous posts here over the last ten years.  Gaston has never played this game, he is a failed game maker that was trying to make some flight sim oriented board game and was trying to show how in his "game" that his "flight model/physics" was far superior.  You can even search the old Ubisoft IL2 message boards and you'll find the same posts from him trying to claim the same thing about IL2's flight model compared to his board game.  The funny thing is that Gaston bases his claims mostly from pilot's anecdotes, not physics.

Some of those seemed contradictory any way. 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Guppy35 on May 20, 2018, 04:29:16 PM

And yet, the quotes are accurate, and are consistent with my own understanding from reading pilot accounts.  I don't doubt that HTC uses the best objective information available to it, but the pathetic turn performance of the 190A series, for example, just doesn't match with real-world accounts.  Perhaps it has to do with something mentioned in one of the quotes, that the 190's controls were very light.  We (well, OK, "I") often overlook the fact that pushing our controllers around requires no real effort, regardless of the speed at which our crates are virtually traveling.

- oldman (and I recall that AW's P-47 was based on the best objective information available to Kesmai, and certainly there was a world of difference between that P-47 and HTC's.)

Gonna have to pull out my quote from the 38 pilot who out turned the 109 pilot on the deck while still carrying his bombs.  Doubt the 109 folks would agree that is how it should work :)
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Devil 505 on May 20, 2018, 05:13:53 PM
Gonna have to pull out my quote from the 38 pilot who out turned the 109 pilot on the deck while still carrying his bombs.  Doubt the 109 folks would agree that is how it should work :)

Oh, Gaston already posted that.

Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on May 20, 2018, 06:57:35 PM
Gonna have to pull out my quote from the 38 pilot who out turned the 109 pilot on the deck while still carrying his bombs.  Doubt the 109 folks would agree that is how it should work :)

Gaston already stole your quote a few years ago and added it to his "list" to show how badly modeled the Bf 109 is in the game.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on May 20, 2018, 08:19:35 PM
The 190A5 in AH is a way underrated turner.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: save on May 21, 2018, 01:40:26 AM


Almost looks like he wants our 190-A family to out turn everything on the allies side

No, but maybe the A8 should outturn a fully loaded Lancaster.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Krusty on May 21, 2018, 10:24:18 AM
The 190A5 in AH is a way underrated turner.

Yes, what most of those quote are missing is context. The 190A5 is not the best and IMO something is wrong with the modelling (G-2 specs, not A-5, last I recall?) but those quotes are taken out of context to push a preconceived agenda IMO.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Mister Fork on May 22, 2018, 09:12:27 AM

No, but maybe the A8 should outturn a fully loaded Lancaster.
+1 on that...and I'll include the A-20, Ju-88, Mosquito, and B-26 ... all can outturn a 190-A8.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Vulcan on May 22, 2018, 10:59:26 PM
Yes, what most of those quote are missing is context. The 190A5 is not the best and IMO something is wrong with the modelling (G-2 specs, not A-5, last I recall?) but those quotes are taken out of context to push a preconceived agenda IMO.

Well it's a question of things like instantaneous turn vs sustained turn. We all know an A5 can flick into a turn very quickly, but cannot sustain that turn against it's traditional enemies. So was a spit pilot talking about sustained turn rates? Probably not.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Krusty on May 23, 2018, 11:39:31 AM
There were several quotes posted many many many many years back and these may be the same ones. They were high speed engagements and nowhere near stall speeds. At higher speeds (300+) the A-5 is very maneuverable compared to a spitfire.


Context. It's important.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: bustr on May 23, 2018, 01:58:23 PM
I've read after action reports and in many they seem to assume the pilot being debriefed or writing the report and the interested parties receiving the reports are all on the same general page to what the engagement speeds were at the time. I've seen specifics about speeds when a pilot due to the action ended up being slower than normal combat speed for most engagements. Are there compendiums of action reports with better specifics on speed of the engagement? Some allied reports it's noted as different when a skilled german veteran is flying at slower maneuvering speeds to force outcomes out of the allied pilots. In most cases didn't fighter pilots fly at full throttle in engagements becasue they were betting their lives on the outcome? From the early days of the 190A versus spitV the speed of the 190A was of great concern to the spitV pilots and after action reports on both sides spoke of the obvious speed differences during engagements, and how quickly the 190A could return for passes on the spitV. Parity of speed didn't start happening until later spits and AAF fighters.

Over the years some have questioned Hitech's modeling of maneuverability for the 190A. My experience is 300 and faster if that 190A player never turned more than an initial high speed turn that my later mark spits could match but, not pull lead against, then dive away. As long as there was not a mini hoard and only myself or even one other, the 190A player could make that 190 do everything in Gaston's after action reports until he wanted to leave, shot me\us down or, got below 300 screwing his own pooch. The complaints over the years appeared to be about lower speed maneuverability, probably due to misinterpreting the historic reports. If the A3 were introduce and POTW got spitV in that SFO, I might consider sitting that month out. Aside from a small number of phenomenal 190 aerobatic ACM players over the years, the veterans who flew the 190 by the rules, much of the time they got away or the fight was a draw. It is highly maneuverable 300 and above if you have learned how to maneuver it to it's design strengths.

And in the early days of the 190A the luft had the luxury of training it's 190 pilots to that plane's strengths and many experts to mentor them in combat. This last FSO POTW in P51B jumped a flight of A8 at about 20k. The A8's kept their speed and for the most part we were all turning 300 and faster keeping parity and not over taking them for many close shots. The week after we were in 51D with similar results becasue the A8 kept their speed. In both cases we chased them away from the bombers but, we did not decisively destroy their force becasue they flew by the 190 rules. MA combat is different than FSO combat where we have one life and objectives to achieve. In the MA when 190 pilots fly the way those did in our FSO engagement, they are ridiculed on 200 for being cowards.

An obvious agenda by the author of this original WWII combat and flight testing post.       
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: save on May 25, 2018, 06:41:15 AM
over 23k The A8 is pretty much a target, the engine suck up there, can't turn - compared with contemporary allied planes. a set of lancaster at 30k outdo it in every respect, the A8 is below 1 ATA.

Below 15k, and not between 5-9k , with 2 20mm guns instead of 4, less than 50% fuel, and good wingmen - that's another story in many vs many fight.

the 5-9k suckage is before the 2nd stage supercharger kick in. The A9 corrected that problem, and also reinforced the oil ring armor.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on May 27, 2018, 03:28:34 PM
There were several quotes posted many many many many years back and these may be the same ones. They were high speed engagements and nowhere near stall speeds. At higher speeds (300+) the A-5 is very maneuverable compared to a spitfire.


Context. It's important.

  So here is the context then:

  General Statement: John Weir: "[Hurricane] was much more maneuverable than a Spit... A Spit was a higher [real] wing loading... But the Foke-Wulf could turn the same as we [Hurricane] could, and they kept on catching up"

  General Statement: Red Fleet, 1943: " the FW-190A will inevitably offer turning battle at a minimum speed."

  General Statement: Donald Caldwell: "The pilot’s opinions of the “long-nosed Dora”, or Dora-9, as it was variously nicknamed, were mixed. The new airplane lacked the high turn rate and incredible rate of roll of its close-coupled radial-engined predecessor."

 General Statement:  Russian Spitfire use: ""The Spitfire failed in horizontal fighting, but was particularly adapted to vertical fighting."


  General Statement: RAE: No major difference in turning ability between Spit Mk V and Mk IX at 15 000 or 30 000 ft: Gains of Mk IX are on the vertical.

 
Stability and control committee, "S.C. 1718", 24 April 1944:

  General Statement: Turning below 250 mph:
  "The turns were made so rapidly it was impossible for the airplanes to accelerate, and the ability of  the FW-190 to hang in its propeller and turn inside the P-47 was very evident."

  General Statement: "On special Missions,KG 200": (early captured Razorback without full power available, and with needle tip prop) "The P-47D out-turns our Bf-109G" (No mention of this for the P-51)

  (P-51 Mk IV vs late Me-109Gs or Ks):
General Statement: "The 109s we encountered were obviously an experienced bunch of boys. Their turning circle is decidedly better than ours at low speed. The lowering of 20 degrees of flaps may just enable us to hold them in the turn, although I feel they could outclimb us."


  ----------------------------------------------------



  The problem is that it is you who is ignoring the context...

  I keep telling you about a mouse hunting down and eating a cat, and you keep saying "well it depends what was the context when the mouse ate the cat...", or, invoking pilot skills: "The mouse was very big and the cat was very small."

  The problem is, all of these quotes are a general summaries of an unknown, and in some cases probably large, number of events, from which a condensed general conclusion was drawn. That is a context, not an individual anecdote... It is "mice generally eat cats", not "that one mouse ate that one cat".

  Compounding this further, these general "summaries" are from multiple, unrelated, disparate sources of different nationalities: Red Fleet: "The mouse will inevitably eat the cat from a minimum speed." Weir: "The cat is always weaker. We Hurricanes were stronger than the cat, but even then the mouse was still chasing us." Russian flying Spits: "The cat cannot chase the mouse, so it is always better, when a cat, to run away from the mouse..." Rechlin: "The mouse always eats the cat, at any speed."

   Not a general statement, but revealing nonetheless:

  Johnny Johnson: "Being a cat, it was only a matter of time before the mouse would eat me."



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




  Now I know the argument of cherry picking could be made: "But you only picked the cases where the mouse ate the cat".

  I did prune -ridiculous- test pilot accounts in favour of experienced front line pilot accounts, the height of ridiculousness being the US Navy FW-190A flight tests: True FW-190A "experts" these fools.

  Still, even if you take that as unfair pruning, you would still have to explain why a mouse is reliably reported to have eaten a cat.

  Furthermore (and I feel this should really give a clue, unlike so many discussions centering around "promoting" the awesomeness of an aircraft), please note how I am not biased towards any particular type or nationality: I point out the superiority of the P-47, I point out the horrible FW-190A high speed vertical and horizontal handling: Not only loose vertical loops, but loops that are still hard on the pilot despite being loose, burning up huge amounts of speed (at the expense of the pilot) while sinking tail down: The worst of both worlds...

  And I do point out the Spitfire's (and P-51) huge superiority in vertical and high speed elevator and pitch plane handling.

  When Kurt Tank says he gets very high Gs from the FW-190A at 400 mph, with light elevator forces, please remember what I said about loose loops still managing to be hard on the pilot... Just because  the pilot is suffering from huge Gs doesn't mean the curve he is carving in the sky is actually that sharp...:

  Eric Brown ("Duels in the Sky") p. 128:
  FW-190A: "Care must be taken on dive pull-out not to kill speed by sinking, or on the dive's exit, the FW-190 will be very slow and vulnerable."

  The answer is right there. Eric Brown, for once, actually saying something true and useful about the FW-190A... Yes, he did get some things right, from time to time!

-------------------------------------------------

  I know that what I am saying seems like I say the whole science of flight physics is wrong.

  In fact it is narrower than that: The whole of science of flight physics is wrong for nose-driven low-wing monoplane fighters, of 1000 hp or more, and of at least 5000 lbs in weight.

  The very fact that this "Science" thinks nose-driven or tail-pushed makes no difference should be a clue.

  How can a whole "hard science" be completely wrong in one area? (It is in fact, more than wrong, it is ****) Well how about the fact that it was only 30-40 years old at the time?

 And that it suddenly dropped the study of low-wing prop fighters as soon as jets appeared?

  Does that make it sound a little more likely then? Or do you really think what goes on here is as solidly established as the relationship between cat and mouse?

  Gaston

 
  P.S. And no, none of what I claim violates any basic laws of physics by the way, at least not if you understand the difference between Force and Energy. The FW-190A, in all its marks, out-turned at low sustained speeds the Spitfire, in all its Marks, obviously because it got the physics right... Nothing in physics prevents the lighter airplane from taxing its wings more than the heavier aircraft: It is not the heavier airplane that is adding, it is the lighter airplane that is substracting more from a far greater than assumed total for both.

  The total force on the wings, in sustained horizontal turns, is far greater than the total now assumed to be the truth (could easily be detected if the wing bending on these old things had ever been measured on the horizontal: It never has), because the asymmetry on the loaded prop disc sets up a tumbling of air on the back of the wing: That initial tumbling is sustained in a rotating flow, and "sucks" pressure off the back of the wing, making the wingload total far heavier than what is assumed today for horizontal turns in these types of aircrafts. They all have the strength to absorb this extra load, being all over 10 Gs airframes.

  It doesn't show up in dive pull-outs because the dive unloads the prop, nullifying the tumbling "suction" effect from fighting the frontal leverage of the prop (which wants to stay straight).

  That is why the FW-190A performs so poorly on the vertical: Unloaded prop disc = Less suction advantage on the back of the wing, and this makes it match its wingloading "math" more...

  The "tumbling" that creates an air pump on the back of the wing is caused by the trajectory being slightly wider than it should be (from fighting the prop leverage to tilt itself): A wider turn means more air is "processed" by the wings, and some of it spills over the top of the wings in a horizontal spiral: This "wingtop pump" sucks more and more air as the turning goes on, bending the wings far beyond the assumed value at the low sustained speed value (3-3.5 Gs). It could be that a "soft" initial turn entry will not set up this "pump".

    That is the working theory for now at least.

   G.

 


 

 

 
 

 

 

 

   

 

   

   
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Krusty on May 29, 2018, 09:02:47 AM
Gaston, bolding your own text is not adding context.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on May 31, 2018, 08:27:51 PM

  Ok then, give me the context of this:

  General Statement: Red Fleet, 1943: " the FW-190A will inevitably offer turning battle at a minimum speed."

  Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 01, 2018, 02:18:42 AM
The context is some anecdote of a 190 who will turn when slow. Doesnt say that it will win or what slow is.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: BuckShot on June 01, 2018, 04:44:11 PM
I enjoyed reading those quotes and accounts. Gaston, Thanks for posting.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 01, 2018, 06:27:22 PM
The context is some anecdote of a 190 who will turn when slow. Doesnt say that it will win or what slow is.

  It doesn't say what slow is?

  What does "turning combat at minimum speed" sound like? Sound like the minimum speed for turning to me...

  There are no anecdotes in Red Fleet, No. 37, November 4, 1943...   Only general statements.

  The FW-190A does not win doing this?

  Why then do multiple Russian sources say:

  -In fighting the FW-190 our La-5 should force the Germans to fight by using the vertical maneuver.

  -Vladimir Orekov: "An experienced Fw-190A pilot practically never fights in the vertical plane"

  -FW-190 pilots do not like to fight in vertical maneuvers.

  -"Enemy FW-190A pilots never fight on the vertical plane."

  If the FW-190A does not like vertical maneuvers, and never wins on the horizontal, does it ever win?

  -"The speed of the FW-190 is slightly higher than that of the Messerschmitt; it also has more powerful armament and is more maneuverable in horizontal flight."

  Does that mean the Me-109 wins even less than the FW-190A in horizontal fights? It looks like it...

  Gaston

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 01, 2018, 06:28:44 PM
I enjoyed reading those quotes and accounts. Gaston, Thanks for posting.

  You're very welcome.

  Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 01, 2018, 07:13:10 PM
Gaston none of that says anything useful about actual performance. The comments are interesting as historical anecdotes but they aren't proving any points.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 01, 2018, 09:49:46 PM
Ok so what is minimum speed? Seriously, enlighten me. Level flight stall speed? Minimum controllable airspeed at full or idle power? Is it the same for all aircraft? Find some test or engineering data to support turn rate claims or all those quotes are just anecdotes.

Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 01, 2018, 11:03:54 PM
Ok so what is minimum speed? Seriously, enlighten me. Level flight stall speed? Minimum controllable airspeed at full or idle power? Is it the same for all aircraft? Find some test or engineering data to support turn rate claims or all those quotes are just anecdotes.

  It's all in the quotes I made: 

  "FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken,  preferring left turning fights. There has been cases of such turning fights lasting quite a long time,"


  Turning for "quite a long time" means "minimum speed" is for sustained turn speed. That is quite explicit.

  In the FW-190A, you want to fight horizontally at minimum sustained turn speed (and never dive and climb): Since  speed decays until sustained turn speed (3-3.5 Gs at most) is reached, there is no other interpretation but sustained turn speed (between 160 and 210 mph on most types).

  And, unfortunately for your case, these are not anecdotes: These are general conclusions from a large number of pilots involved in a large number of battles, over a period of time ranging from early 1942 to late 1943. (Not the US Navy's "test pilot" conclusion from people who have never fought the 190): November 1943 in Russia probably means the conclusion is a condensed mashup on many hundreds, if not thousands of actual air battles...

  You seem to have a huge deal of trouble distinguishing between "anecdotes" and "general conclusions".

  What could possibly lead to this confusion?

  Gaston

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on June 02, 2018, 01:55:07 AM

Turning for "quite a long time" means "minimum speed" is for sustained turn speed. That is quite explicit.

Gaston

No it doesn't.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Chalenge on June 02, 2018, 03:32:09 AM
What was the relative fuel state of all aircraft involved?
What was the ambient sea level temperature in Celsius?
Was it raining? Was the wind blowing?
Was there any vertical air movement?
Were all aircraft fully loaded with ammunition?
Was one pilot hung over?
Did the loser remember his towel?
Did either pilot have eggs for breakfast?
What was dewpoint?
Were the tires filled with air, or helium?
What is the stall speed of an African Swallow?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 06:24:38 AM
No it doesn't.

  Oh  no?

  So when Johnny Jonson says:  "With wide-open throttles I held the Spitfire V in the tightest of vertical turns [Period slang for vertical bank].Where was this German, who should, according to my reckoning, be filling my gunsight? I could not see him, and little wonder, for he was gaining on me: In another couple of turns he would have me in his sights.---I asked the Spitfire for all she had in the turn, but the enemy pilot hung behind like a leech.-It could only be a question of time..."

  ...It could mean they are both staying at high speed?

  A vertical bank turn does not involve significant diving... Altitude loss is not quite the same as diving, and the two were both very low anyway. They were "on opposite sides of an ever diminishing circle" in that same account, which is not quite like a descending spiral... You could still argue that it was a descending spiral, just not that it was a very steep spiral I would say...

  Also, yet another general Russian statement:

  -A fairly good horizontal maneuver permits the FW-190 to turn at low speed without falling into a tail spin.

  So by Russian standards, the FW-190A was a "fairly good" low-speed turner. The Russians were generally big fans of horizontal turns, somewhat like the Japanese, because their aircrafts tended to be low altitude light  maneuverable types: They liked low speed turn fighting. So "fairly good" from them is actually pretty high praise: They found the Spitfire could not be used for their low altitude turning tactics:

  " Dans la journée du 29 avril, le régiment effectua 28 sorties pour escorter des bombardiers et des avions d'attaque au sol et 23 en protection de troupes, avec quatre combats aériens. Les premiers jours furent marqués par des échecs dus à une tactique de combat périmée dans le plan horizontal, alors que le Spitfire était particulièrement adapté au combat dans le plan vertical."

 [Translation: "The Spitfire failed in horizontal fighting, but was particularly adapted to vertical fighting."]


   Again, context,  it's all about the context.

   Gaston

 

 

 

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Zimme83 on June 02, 2018, 06:59:30 AM
Still quite pointless debate. real WW2 combat was nothing like the fighting in AH. it wasnt 1 vs 1 and "failing in horizontal fighting" Could simply mean that the plane wasnt fast enough or lost its E  in turns so that it became slow and vulnerable to other enemies. Speed was everything.

The P-40 is a really crappy turner in AH, and yet the real one could outturn Zeros and KI-43:s. Simply because at higher speeds the japanese planes starts to struggle and they cannot take high G:s, unlike the P-40 that could tolerate almost anything allowing the pilots to do 8g turns and thus they have a huge advantage at higher speeds against their more agile opponents. They of course learned to keep their speed up so that they didnt end up at a speed where the Japanese planes could get them.

And most pilots in WW2 could probably not fly their planes to their limits so stories about plane A out turning plane B says very little about their real capabilities.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Zimme83 on June 02, 2018, 07:07:18 AM
Combat trials and tests are more reliable, her for ex the spit 14:
http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit14afdu.html

Quote
Turning Circle
41. Spitfire XIV can easily turn inside the FW 190, though in the case of a right-hand turn, this difference is not so quite pronounced.

Quote
Turning Circle
47. The Spitfire XIV easily out-turns the Me.109G in either direction.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 02, 2018, 07:12:36 AM


  In the FW-190A, you want to fight horizontally at minimum sustained turn speed (and never dive and climb):

 

That is ludicrous advice. The only thing worse would be slow, straight and level.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Oldman731 on June 02, 2018, 09:49:56 AM
That is ludicrous advice. The only thing worse would be slow, straight and level.


True, with our FW.  OTOH, works fine with our Spit.  The point is that, for one reason or another, our planes don't always seem to match with the way real pilots say they flew.

- oldman
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 10:19:50 AM
Combat trials and tests are more reliable, her for ex the spit 14:
http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit14afdu.html


    :D :D :D :D :D

  And note the 109 in those trials did even worse.

  For instance, the 109 could not out-turn the P-51 with two underwing full drop tanks, Yes a loaded P-51, but the 190 was "equal" to the P-51 without its drop tanks... Check those other British AFDU or RAE tests: Yes, the above is in there...


  However, on this very board, a relative of a FW-190A ace related first hand information about how the FW-190A and the P-51D really compared: Using the ailerons to "catch the stall", he reversed a tailing P-51D in two 360s on the deck. (He was a P-51 kill ace)

  The reason he could do this, he explained, was in part due to the larger wooden prop (A-8-9s only), with more low speed "bite", but also because  FW-190A pilots were offered 3 types of ailerons: 3 different chords (you can tell them on some photos by their trim tab layout): Thin, medium, broad. He chose broad, and then custom enhanced this further by mounting spacers on the aileron hinges, so that the broad ailerons were spaced away from the wing for an even greater low speed "stall catch" effect. (This made the ailerons heavier at high speed of course, but since he downthrottled just before the combat, he did not care)

  The tactics used by FW-190As, when encountering P-51s at low altitudes (where the overall German kill ratio was 1:1, vs a huge lopsided loss at high altitudes), were always the same he explained: Reduce power settings just before merging, drop the flaps, and turn fight at low speed with the engine throttled down exclusively. He never deliberately used full power in combat, as when the P-51 did not want to tangle, he simply waited to turn into a diving attack for a head to head: The FW-190A usually came out way ahead in nose to nose brawn, as well as low speed turning.

  The Merlin P-51 also had its own down throttling tricks for turning slow, as shown in the Hanseman example I posted: Reduce throttle, prop on full coarse, 20 degrees of flaps. The lower the power, the faster the turn rate.

  Axis pilots often did not understand the necessity of down throttling to sustain faster rates of low-speed turns, as I quote Karhila explaining. (He says the 109G was optimal throttled down to 160 mph)

  In any case, too bad the relative's post on AH was bumped off and now "forgotten": It is the very thing that started me on this whole journey where I understood at last what these things were actually like, and how they were flown... The most shocking account to me has to be the P-47Ds (needle tips) matching or besting turns with Me-109Gs on the deck while carrying 2 X 1000 lbs bombs... (see the Aquapendente bridge bombing account I posted).

  Pretty wild.

  Gaston

 

   

 

   
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 02, 2018, 10:24:51 AM

True, with our FW.  OTOH, works fine with our Spit.  The point is that, for one reason or another, our planes don't always seem to match with the way real pilots say they flew.

- oldman

It's bad advice for any aircraft. 

The AH flight models are correct enough. These discussions are really about the different ways you can interpret insufficient information.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: MiloMorai on June 02, 2018, 11:04:05 AM
Quote
FW-190A pilots were offered 3 types of ailerons: 3 different chords (you can tell them on some photos by their trim tab layout): Thin, medium, broad.

First time I have heard of this. Please post examples.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Chalenge on June 02, 2018, 12:35:53 PM
That is ludicrous advice. The only thing worse would be slow, straight and level.

Aw! but I love it when the first move is a nice, coordinated, level turn!
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 02, 2018, 02:02:39 PM
Minimum speed and sustained turn are incompatible Gaston. At your slowest level speed you cannot turn. All lift is used to keep you from falling out of the sky. At maximum speed you can no longer turn without having to slow down since some thrust us being used to counter the additional induced drag that results from turning.

Somewhere in there you have instantaneous and sustained corner velocities. Your anecdotes while interesting are not proof of a modeling deficiency (which im sure exist due to lack of data and the difficulty of modeling aircraft behavior at the edge of the envelope).

My car routinely gets passed by Priuses on the highway. Is that because they are faster or i don't drive as aggressively?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Devil 505 on June 02, 2018, 02:07:30 PM
My car routinely gets passed by Priuses on the highway. Is that because they are faster or i don't drive as aggressively?

Can they out turn you at minimum speed though?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 02, 2018, 02:13:36 PM
Speed or velocity? :p
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Vraciu on June 02, 2018, 02:15:33 PM
Aw! but I love it when the first move is a nice, coordinated, level turn!

It's actually quite effective depending on the situation.  One player in particular uses that move to win by forcing stalemate where the pursuing fighter never gains ground and almost always loses it.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 03:46:09 PM
It's bad advice for any aircraft. 

The AH flight models are correct enough. These discussions are really about the different ways you can interpret insufficient information.

  So flight simulations know better than actual front line pilots?

  P-51D vs Me-109G(Hanseman) :"Dogfight at 500 ft."--"Then he stopped cutting me off as I cut throttle, dropped 20 degrees of flaps and increased prop pitch"--"Gradually I worked the Me-109G away from the field and commenced to turn inside of him as I reduced throttle settings."

 Kyösti Karhila: "I learned to fly with the "Cannon-Mersu" (MT-461). I found that when fighter pilots got in a battle, they usually applied full power and then began to turn. In the same situation I used to decrease power, and with lower speed was able to turn equally well."

  Gaston

 

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 02, 2018, 04:26:03 PM
Uh... dude youre mixing up anecdotes for some incomprehensible agenda.

In the first example he slowed down, decreased his turn radius and with an aircraft attempting to pull lead gave him closer and aspect problems, forcing to fly outside his turn circle.


In the second situation the offender was above corner velocity and slowing down allowed him to increase their turn rate.

 None of them said that slowed to a stall and then magically won.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 04:56:58 PM
First time I have heard of this. Please post examples.

  Probably because you have no WWII FW-190A pilot relative...

  Flush with trailing edge, trim tab sticking out:

  (http://www.warbirdphotographs.com/LCBW10/FW190-50bf-s.jpg)


   Long chord going beyond the trailing edge:

  (http://www.warbirdphotographs.com/LCBW10/FW190-83f-s.jpg)


   Flush with trailing edge:

  (http://www.warbirdphotographs.com/LCBW10/FW190-94f-s.jpg)


  Beyond trailing edge:

  (http://en.valka.cz/attachments/121/Fw_190_A-5.jpg)


  I know this is not mentioned anywhere, but hey: The only source was this site, from the pilot's relative, in the circa 2004-2005 AH thread titled "FW-190A performance in combat", which has now "disappeared" for decades, and for the life of this board not a single person can remember this thread of at least 3 pages?... There are some truly mysterious things  going on around here... I must be making it all up...

  Thinking of this logically, does that aileron chord choice thing sound like something somebody would make up? Waiting for the wing drop in the turn, and then "catching" the drop with the ailerons, and then continuing the turn with the ailerons deflected? The FW-190A was a superb low-speed turn-fighter, with ailerons deflected, that's something a liar would make up? Really?

  How about this other mention from the same relative?: "He underlined that with the broad wood prop, the prop's diameter was larger, and this required care to not touch the ground with the prop's blade tips while going down the runway."

  Yes, that totally sounds like someone who is making this up.

  Gaston
 

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 05:23:46 PM
Uh... dude youre mixing up anecdotes for some incomprehensible agenda.

In the first example he slowed down, decreased his turn radius and with an aircraft attempting to pull lead gave him closer and aspect problems, forcing to fly outside his turn circle.

  Since this involves several 360 turns at 500 ft., I'm sure they were going at blistering speed:

  "Dogfight at 500 ft."--"Then he stopped cutting me off as I cut throttle, dropped 20 degrees of flaps and increased prop pitch. Every time I got close to the edge of the airdrome they opened fire with light AA guns. Gradually I worked the Me-109G away from the field and commenced to turn inside of him as I reduced throttle settings."

  SETP 1989 test: "Corner Speed on all types (P-51-P-47-F6F) was found to be very close to their maximum level (METO) speed (10 000 feet: 320 mph)"

  You'll never guess: The "corner speed" determined by the lowest speed to do 6 Gs in dive pull outs will not match what you can do in horizontal turns: Horizontal turns at full METO power requires a much higher speed to make 6 Gs.... Hmm... More mysteries...

 

In the second situation the offender was above corner velocity and slowing down allowed him to increase their turn rate.

 None of them said that slowed to a stall and then magically won.

  That's a tough one... He mentions the optimal sustained turning speed (maximum sustained Gs then: 3 Gs or thereabouts) for a reduced throttle Me-109G as 160 mph. Stall flaps down and level is about 100 mph... When you add turning, that's pretty close to a stall to pull around 3 Gs with a 60 mph margin...

  Doesn't sound like blistering speeds to me, but hey, you know better than they do, right?

  Gaston

   
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Oldman731 on June 02, 2018, 06:11:14 PM
I know this is not mentioned anywhere, but hey: The only source was this site, from the pilot's relative, in the circa 2004-2005 AH thread titled "FW-190A performance in combat", which has now "disappeared" for decades, and for the life of this board not a single person can remember this thread of at least 3 pages?... There are some truly mysterious things  going on around here... I must be making it all up...


Might have happened when HTC switched to the present BBS.  I can't recall if everything had to begin all over again.

- oldman
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 02, 2018, 06:20:44 PM
The speed required to pull 6 gs is the same. The difference between level or descending is how long you can sustain it with gravity helping.

So if corner is 320 that contradicts your minimum speed statement from earlier.

Also was the 320 the intersection of the accelerated stall and pilot g or airframe g limit?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on June 02, 2018, 06:40:04 PM
An old thread at the Ubisoft forums starring Gaston with his same claims about the FW190A series.  The thread does show that Gaston likes to throw out the laws of physics and replace them with pilot anecdotes.

Soviet FW-190A combat evaluation and the He-100 issue... (https://forums.ubi.com/archive/index.php/t-246507.html)

One of the posts from a player that disproves one of Gaston's claims about the USN testing of a FW190A-5.

Quote
ImpStarDuece
01-15-2010, 12:04 AM
I’ve collated the commentary from the BuAer test of an F4U-1 and F6F-3 against a FW 190A5/U5 (mislabelled in the test as a “FW 190 A/4”), with specific attention paid to manoeuvrability and engine operation:

Draw your own conclusions…

HORIZONTAL ACCELERATIONS:

“It should be noted that the application of full power in the FW-190 was much easier than in the either airplanes due to the fact that it was necessary to use only the throttle control”

TURNING CIRCLES:

Results of comparative tests of turning characteristics showed the F4U-1 and the F6F-3 to be far superior to the FW-190. Both the F6F and the F4U could follow the FW-190 in turn with ease at any speed, but the FW-190 could not follow either of the other two airplanes. The FW-190, when in a tight turn to the left and near the stalling sped, exhibits a tendency to reverse aileron control and stall without warning. Similarly, when turning to the right it tends to drop the right wing and nose, diving as a result.

From a head-on meeting with the FW-190 both the F4U-1 and the F6F-4 could be directly behind the FW-190 in one turn. From a position directly behind it was possible to turn inside the FW-190 and be directly behind it again in about three turns.

MANUVERABILITY:

The F4U-1 and the F6F-3 were found to be more manoeuvrable than the FW-190. No maneuvers could be done in the FW-190 which could not be followed by the F4U-1 and F6F-3.

It was found hat the FW-190 requires a much greater radius in which to loop than do either the F4U-1 or F6F-2, and tens to stall sharply when trying to follow the F4U-1 or F6F-2 in a loop.

Formation flying was extremely difficult with the FW-190 because of the lack of powerplant control.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS IN MOCK COMBAT

The FW-190 is a very simple aircraft to fly in combat and seems to be designed for pilot convenience. It has a no-warning stall which tends to reduce its efficiency in combat against aircraft which can fly at near the stalling speed. In general it is considered to be an excellent interceptor-type aircraft which is at a disadvantage against aircraft designed for the purposes of “in fighting”.

One throttle level controls propeller pitch, manifold pressure, mixture, magneto timing, and throttle setting, making operation comparatively simple.


GENERAL OPINION OF PILOTS AS TO RELATIVE MERITS…

…it is felt that although more automatic features are provided in the FW-190, less direct control over variable settings is provided and the pilots has, as a result, less actual control over the engine performance.

SUGGESTED TACTICS TO BE USED AGAINST THE FW-190…

If attacked by the FW-190, the F4U-1 and F6F-3 can evade by the use of tight turns. When followed by the FW-190 the F4U and F6F can evade by the use of tight loops. If the FW-190 attempts to follow the other airports in tight loops it stalls out.

In general, whenever the hit-and-run technique cannot be employed, the F4U and F6F should make every effort to close with the FW-190, in both offence and defence.



I’ve also added selected commentary on performance and handling characteristics from the AAF memorandum on the FW-190G-3 (the US captured 6 190G-3s, intact, in Italy in 1944):

Summary:

It [the FW-190] compares favorably with standard AAF fighter types in maneuverability, speed and climb at low and medium altitudes, but is definitely weaker in performance at altitudes over 28,000 ft. Stability was satisfactory at the weight and c.g. at which the airplane was tested and the controls are excellent at all speeds up to 400 MPH indicated airspeed where the elevator tends to become quite heavy and noticeable buffeting and vibration of the airplane occurs.


Flight Characteristics

A. Cockpit Layout


The engine control which automatically selects the correct propeller pitch and fuel mixture for any power setting is a desirable feature since the pilot need concern himself only with the throttle setting.

G. Stalls and Stall Warning

The airplane has a gentle stall and controls remain effective up to the stall. Adequate warning of the stall is given by shaking of the airplane and controls.


H. Maneuverability and Aerobatics

The outstanding maneuverability feature of this airplane is it extremely high rate of roll. The radius of turn, however, is poor and it is only slightly improved by using the maneuvering flap position of 15 degrees. If pulled fast, the airplane tends to stall out abruptly with little warning. Elevator control forces are very heavy in a tight turn, requiring constant use of the elevator trim control.

The airplane responds to the controls satisfactory in performing rolls, loops, Immelmanns and other aerobatics.

Conclusions

The FW-190, AAF No. EB-104, is a well armored fighter airplane with provisions for carrying heavy armament and it compares favorably with standard AAF types of the same date in maneuverability, speed, and climb at low and medium altitudes.

Since Gaston likes to depend solely on pilot anecdotes and has stated in this thread and others that USN practice was "full forward" throttle in combat, here is a USN combat pilot's anecdote on his throttle usage in combat.

Quote
"I pulled up into an extremely tight vertical turn and chopped my throttle to kill speed so I could get around quickly..."  - Lt. Buck Dungan was in a scrap over Orote, Guam, June 19, 1944

Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 06:49:42 PM

Might have happened when HTC switched to the present BBS.  I can't recall if everything had to begin all over again.

- oldman

  Interesting: I tried to find it, when contemporary threads definitely still existed, about 8 years ago. There was no finding it even with scrolling day by day over the several nearest years, or with search terms of several specific sentences such as the thread's title, "FW-190A veteran combat experience" (I misquoted the title earlier) or "I feared no other aircraft in my FW-190A".

  Posting four or five years after the thread's post date, no one said they remembered it... Very odd.

  I remember one poster in it complaining that hearing about P-51s being shot down "makes me angry"... I even remember the thread got testy in a bizarre way: The thing about the large wood prop touching the ground was pointed out as nothing special, because the P-47s larger diameter Paddle blade prop did the same thing. The FW-190 thread's OP then said in a kind of defensive way: "He just thought it was an interesting thing to point out...": The aggressiveness against the OP (the pilot's relative) had a curious pointless feel to it...

  Someone asked if his relative would be interested in playing AH, and the poster replied "probably not". That was the last thing I remember of it. This thread was hugely important to me because it was only then that I started to question the assumed truth about these things: It was the start of this whole thing... I later realized there was a ton of quotes that unambiguously described the FW-190A as best used as a low speed turn fighter, or in head to heads when the opponent would not turn. It was fast, but the accounts of its extremely poor high speed handling also began piling up...

  As you can see from my compilation, this stuff was everywhere, including the famous quote by Rall that describe it as a curved saber to the Me-109's straight rapier...

  Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 02, 2018, 07:02:00 PM
The speed required to pull 6 gs is the same. The difference between level or descending is how long you can sustain it with gravity helping.

So if corner is 320 that contradicts your minimum speed statement from earlier.

Also was the 320 the intersection of the accelerated stall and pilot g or airframe g limit?

  No the horizontal and vertical "Corner Speeds" are not the same: That is what the 320 MPH SETP 1989 test at METO absolutely proves: When pulling out of a dive, the P-51D's 6G "Corner Speed" is 250 mph or thereabouts: That 70 MPH discrepancy (with modern 1989 instruments) absolutely proves that the vertical tolerates a lower speed for 6 G than the horizontal, which in effect proves the propeller's load influences the wingloading.

  Hence the WWII obsession with down-throttling...

  SETP test was Minimum to reach 6 Gs at METO.

  "Corner Speed" is minimum speed to reach an unsustained 6 G, it has nothing to do with sustaining 3G turns "at a minimum speed"...

   320 MPH for 6 Gs is so high the aircraft will barely maintain this 6 G for a few seconds...

  The fact that the horizontal corner speed is so close to max. level speed (and is at a much lower speed when pulling on the vertical) would mean that lowering power should never help these things turn horizontally, EVER, but it does... Hence the current basic knowledge is wrong on the horizontal (because they only ever took data from dive pull-outs -where the P-51D's Corner Speed is indeed around 240-250 mph-, dives during which the prop is unloaded).

  It is the prop being loaded that skewers things (which doesn't happen nose-down), hence the down throttling for faster prolonged sustained speed horizontal turning, all the way down to 160 mph for the Me-109, as Karhila points out. Unloading the prop unloads the wings, allowing tighter sustained turns.

  Gaston

   
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: MiloMorai on June 02, 2018, 07:20:58 PM
  Probably because you have no WWII FW-190A pilot relative...

You do?

I do have several books on the Fw190 and can't remember any mention of aileron design changes.

What were the part numbers for these ailerons?
Title: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ciaphas on June 02, 2018, 07:33:54 PM
Haha there’s always that one “I have a (insert family member) who did (insert task).


Lighten up y’all


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: nooby52 on June 02, 2018, 08:15:15 PM
 :bhead
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 02, 2018, 09:09:15 PM
  No the horizontal and vertical "Corner Speeds" are not the same: That is what the 320 MPH SETP 1989 test at METO absolutely proves: When pulling out of a dive, the P-51D's 6G "Corner Speed" is 250 mph or thereabouts: That 70 MPH discrepancy (with modern 1989 instruments) absolutely proves that the vertical tolerates a lower speed for 6 G than the horizontal, which in effect proves the propeller's load influences the wingloading.

  Hence the WWII obsession with down-throttling...

  SETP test was Minimum to reach 6 Gs at METO.

  "Corner Speed" is minimum speed to reach an unsustained 6 G, it has nothing to do with sustaining 3G turns "at a minimum speed"...

   320 MPH for 6 Gs is so high the aircraft will barely maintain this 6 G for a few seconds...

  The fact that the horizontal corner speed is so close to max. level speed (and is at a much lower speed when pulling on the vertical) would mean that lowering power should never help these things turn horizontally, EVER, but it does... Hence the current basic knowledge is wrong on the horizontal (because they only ever took data from dive pull-outs -where the P-51D's Corner Speed is indeed around 240-250 mph-, dives during which the prop is unloaded).

  It is the prop being loaded that skewers things (which doesn't happen nose-down), hence the down throttling for faster prolonged sustained speed horizontal turning, all the way down to 160 mph for the Me-109, as Karhila points out. Unloading the prop unloads the wings, allowing tighter sustained turns.

  Gaston

 

Dive recovery where you want to minimize alt lost vs corner velocity where you want to maximize turn rate. 2 different things...

I give up...  :bhead
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 03, 2018, 06:19:27 AM
  So flight simulations know better than actual front line pilots?

    Gaston

 

Apparently. The more relevant point is that your conclusions aren't supported by your data.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: asterix on June 03, 2018, 06:56:24 AM
...he is a failed game maker that was trying to make some flight sim oriented board game and was trying to show how in his "game" that his "flight model/physics" was far superior.  You can even search the old Ubisoft IL2 message boards and you'll find the same posts from him trying to claim the same thing about IL2's flight model compared to his board game. ...
Flight model... board game... air combat?
Air combat... board game... flight model?
Wait what?  :headscratch:  :rofl
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Lusche on June 03, 2018, 07:57:28 AM
Flight model... board game... air combat?
Air combat... board game... flight model?
Wait what?  :headscratch:  :rofl

Flight combat simulation isn't necessarily limited to computers. I did play table top / pen&paper based combat flight sims quite a bit before it got popular on computers.
And you basically had the very same conceptual/modeling problems and arguments about 'realism' there as well. :)

From my collection:

A plane data card from 'Over the Reich':

(https://i.imgur.com/5zMbiAQ.jpg)



Data card from 'Air Force':

(https://i.imgur.com/iC18PGk.jpg)



Data card from 'Air Superiority'

(https://i.imgur.com/k2QE2aL.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/R3DFWfR.jpg)



(https://i.imgur.com/xLxr9TO.jpg)




Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 05, 2018, 02:26:19 PM
You do?

I do have several books on the Fw190 and can't remember any mention of aileron design changes.

What were the part numbers for these ailerons?

  Given the photos I posted, I hope you are not actually suggesting that there were no design changes...

  Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 05, 2018, 02:56:38 PM
Dive recovery where you want to minimize alt lost vs corner velocity where you want to maximize turn rate. 2 different things...

I give up...  :bhead


  You don't understand the context: HighTech claimed he did pull 6 Gs well below 300 mph in a real P-51D. When I asked him if it was pulling out of dive or horizontally, he never got back to me...

  Since the SETP claimed in 1989 that the minimum is 320 mph for 6 Gs at METO horizontally, I'll go with what the Society of Experimental and Test Pilots says... ("Corner Speed is very close to maximum level speed on all four types (F6F, FG-1, P-47D, P-51D, within 10 mph), indicating a rapid loss of speed while turning at high Gs"

  In your game the P-51 pulls 6 Gs all the way down to 240-250 mph, based on USAF data charts provided for the P-51. How come, when tested in 1989, the P-51 will not match this data?

  Widewing came in and said the testers went easy on old airplanes... Why is 6 Gs any easier on an airframe at 320 MPH than 250 mph I wonder?

  Also, it is possible, within my theory, to achieve 6 Gs at 250 mph on the P-51 with reduced power output (well below METO): USAF data may assume (like you all do) that prop power output has no effect on turning ability, and put this in the data as an "airframe limit". I consider the SETP data of 320 mph for 6 Gs at 10k feet as the final word for METO.

  Widewing was reduced to questioning the SETP 1989 methodology, while giving more credence to WWII methodology...: Once again, I'll go with modern test pilots over video game "experts"...

  Gaston

 

 

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 05, 2018, 03:06:53 PM
Apparently. The more relevant point is that your conclusions aren't supported by your data.

 Apparently WWII frontline pilots don't know, but computer game geeks do? That's a pretty remarkable claim.

  Why don't you address these three quotes based on years of front line combat?:

  "The FW-190A will inevitably offer turning combat at a minimum speed."

  "-They interact in the following manner:
Me-109G will usually perform dive and climb attacks using superior airspeed after their dive.
FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken,  preferring left turning fights. There has been cases of such turning fights lasting quite a long time."


  "They were complementary, Me-109 was a rapier, the FW-190A was a sabre." Rall

  One you've addressed these conclusions of years of frontline combat, you'll be on your way.

  Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 05, 2018, 03:19:40 PM
Flight combat simulation isn't necessarily limited to computers. I did play table top / pen&paper based combat flight sims quite a bit before it got popular on computers.
And you basically had the very same conceptual/modeling problems and arguments about 'realism' there as well. :)

From my collection:

Data card from 'Air Force':

(https://i.imgur.com/iC18PGk.jpg)



  Inherent problems of board game realism have nothing to do with hierarchy between aircraft types for each area of performance... I modified the "Air Force" game, with the correct hierarchy, and a few better rules, to create my "Advanced Air Force" variant. I don't claim it is a realistic representation of air combat... Just a correctly informative one concerning hierarchy between types:

  https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/97109/advanced-air-force

   Gaston
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on June 05, 2018, 03:46:52 PM
  Inherent problems of board game realism have nothing to do with hierarchy between aircraft types for each area of performance... I modified the "Air Force" game, with the correct hierarchy, and a few better rules, to create my "Advanced Air Force" variant. I don't claim it is a realistic representation of air combat... Just a correctly informative one concerning hierarchy between types:

  https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/97109/advanced-air-force

   Gaston

And we're supposed to take a word of a failed board game developer as the gospel truth?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Vulcan on June 05, 2018, 04:08:14 PM
And we're supposed to take a word of a failed board game developer as the gospel truth?

Because once he got bit by a scorpion, and poison allowed the truth to come to him.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 05, 2018, 05:32:31 PM
Apparently WWII frontline pilots don't know, but computer game geeks do? That's a pretty remarkable claim.


That wasn't my claim. My claim is that some computer game designers know more about aerodynamics than some WW2 pilots.

You don't present a rational argument.  You have posted nothing that shows that the AH FW 190 should turn better than it does.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: MiloMorai on June 05, 2018, 06:01:01 PM
  Given the photos I posted, I hope you are not actually suggesting that there were no design changes...

  Gaston

What are the part numbers?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 05, 2018, 06:17:06 PM

  "They were complementary, Me-109 was a rapier, the FW-190A was a sabre." Rall

 

Do understand this as the 109 flying straight and the 190 turning? I don't think that was Rall's point.

Rall was saying the 109 was more maneuverable but the 190 hit harder.

The 190 was better for being faster and having better high speed handling, not for slow speed turning.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Vulcan on June 06, 2018, 04:22:05 AM
Do understand this as the 109 flying straight and the 190 turning? I don't think that was Rall's point.

Rall was saying the 109 was more maneuverable but the 190 hit harder.

The 190 was better for being faster and having better high speed handling, not for slow speed turning.

Excellent point, a rapier is a thrusting weapon, and a sabre is a slashing weapon.

Looks like gaston defeated himself?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 06, 2018, 05:02:41 AM
Actually a rapier can have both edges sharp and can slash.

I doubt Gaston will change his mind after all these years.

He's had time to learn aeronautics and declined.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 16, 2018, 12:25:01 PM
Do understand this as the 109 flying straight and the 190 turning? I don't think that was Rall's point.

Rall was saying the 109 was more maneuverable but the 190 hit harder.

The 190 was better for being faster and having better high speed handling, not for slow speed turning.

  You don't think this was Rall's point because you are being intellectually dishonest.

  Rapiers were used for thrusting in a straight line, Sabres were used in swinging curves while drawing the hand back on contact (to slice: They were not heavy enough to chop). Sabres were not much heavier than rapiers: They did not "hit" hard, they sliced, and Rall knew this very well...
 

  The reality is the science does not match observations from a huge variety of sources, the only two really big contradictory elements being Eric Brown and the two US Navy FW-190A evaluations... Both hailing from the Navy... The NAVY opinion of FW-190As...

  And I notice you all avoid dealing directly with these particular Red Fleet magazine quotes, so please let's see your interpretations of them:

  "-The speed of the FW-190 is slightly higher than that of the Messerschmitt; it also has more powerful armament and is more maneuverable in horizontal flight."

  "The FW-190A will inevitably offer turning combat at a minimum speed."

  "-They interact in the following manner:
Me-109G will usually perform dive and climb attacks using superior airspeed after their dive.
FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken,  preferring left turning fights. There has been cases of such turning fights lasting quite a long time."

  To which a nice British companion piece:

  -"-Squadron Leader Alan Deere, (Osprey Spit MkV aces 1941-45, Ch. 3, p. 2): "Never had I seen the Hun stay and fight it out as these Focke-Wulf pilots were doing... In Me-109s the Hun tactic had always followed the same pattern- a quick pass and away, sound tactics against Spitfires and their superior turning circle. Not so these 190 pilots: They were full of confidence... We lost 8 to their one that day..."

  Yes, let's see what these two sources meant to say to those "who have learned aerodynamics".

   Gaston

 

 

 

 

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Zimme83 on June 16, 2018, 02:51:19 PM
Maneuverability is not the same as turn radius. Its also for ex roll rate.
The early 190 was better than the spit V in almost every aspect expect turn radius so yes - the spits had a lot of trouble with 190:s.

All the spits could outturn any 190, but the 190 was still in some aspects more maneuverable, the roll rate is the most obvious example. Real life pilots where affected by G- and stick forces when turning hard at higher speeds so they did not always pulled their plane to their absolute limit. These effects can never be simulated in a game and the same for the pilots physical status and training so a game will never be exactly as irl.

And you are still wrong:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/fw190/ptr-1107.pdf
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: atlau on June 16, 2018, 03:26:59 PM
Dont try to reason with him...
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 16, 2018, 06:21:03 PM
Maneuverability is not the same as turn radius. Its also for ex roll rate.
The early 190 was better than the spit V in almost every aspect expect turn radius so yes - the spits had a lot of trouble with 190:s.

All the spits could outturn any 190, but the 190 was still in some aspects more maneuverable, the roll rate is the most obvious example. Real life pilots where affected by G- and stick forces when turning hard at higher speeds so they did not always pulled their plane to their absolute limit. These effects can never be simulated in a game and the same for the pilots physical status and training so a game will never be exactly as irl.

And you are still wrong:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/fw190/ptr-1107.pdf

  Yes, the US Navy tests!!! The US Navy knows more about 190s than the Russians... :x

  As for pilots not being able to take High Gs, unfortunately for this "attempt" at a counter argument, sustained turns could not go above 3.3 or 3.4 Gs, well within the ability of any pilot to tolerate for many turns. Only high speed unsustained turns could really overtake pilots (beyond 6 Gs), and the 1989 SETP test has shown us that the minimum for 6 Gs  "was close to maximum level speed on all 4 types, indicating a rapid loss of speed when turning close to the structural limit" ...

  Address the quotes directly word by word please. What does this mean:

  "-The speed of the FW-190 is slightly higher than that of the Messerschmitt; it also has more powerful armament, and is more maneuverable in horizontal flight."

  "The FW-190A will inevitably offer turning combat at a minimum speed."

  "-They interact in the following manner:
Me-109G will usually perform dive and climb attacks using superior airspeed after their dive.
FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken, preferring left turning fights. There has been cases of such turning fights lasting quite a long time."

  "Never had I seen the Hun stay and fight it out as these Focke-Wulf pilots were doing... In Me-109s the Hun tactic had always followed the same pattern- a quick pass and away... Not so these 190 pilots."

-------------------------

  As for your grotesque insistence on high speed turning being your "solution" for all this:

 Stability and control committee, "S.C. 1718", 24 April 1944:

  Turning above 250 mph:
"The P-47 easily out-turned the FW-190 at 10 000 ft., and had to throttle back to avoid overrunning the FW-190."

  Turning below 250 mph:
"the ability of  the FW-190 to hang in its propeller and turn inside the P-47 was very evident."

  P-47D vs Me-109G: (Covelle 19 May 44)"(P-47Ds) "We started turning with several 109s and were having no difficulty doing it at 23 500 ft., with full tanks" "The E/A (109s)started to turn [12 000 ft.], and we out-turned them immediately."

 KG200: "The P-47D out turns our Bf-109G."

  All of the above are the challenge quotes.

   When I say address the quotes, I mean word by word. Tell me what I am misreading, word by word, and what it actually means.

  It shouldn't be complicated, science is on your side right?

  Gaston

 

 

 
 

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 16, 2018, 07:10:34 PM
Again, none of your quotes offer any quantifiable data. There is nothing there that invalidates the AH FW190 flight model. There is nothing to explain or defend. You don't have an argument.

Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Devil 505 on June 16, 2018, 08:23:05 PM
KG200: "The P-47D out turns our Bf-109G."

You do realize that Kg 200 was a bomber unit that never used 109's, right?

pretty much makes that source irrelevant.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: MiloMorai on June 17, 2018, 04:55:10 AM
You do realize that Kg 200 was a bomber unit that never used 109's, right?

pretty much makes that source irrelevant.

Pre 1945 it does but III./KG200 flew Fw190F-8s in 1945.

http://www.ww2.dk/air/kampf/kg200.htm
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Devil 505 on June 17, 2018, 07:30:07 AM
Pre 1945 it does but III./KG200 flew Fw190F-8s in 1945.

http://www.ww2.dk/air/kampf/kg200.htm

I know, but the provided quote references the Bf 109G not the FW 190F.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Gaston on June 18, 2018, 01:52:00 PM
Again, none of your quotes offer any quantifiable data. There is nothing there that invalidates the AH FW190 flight model. There is nothing to explain or defend. You don't have an argument.

  Sorry, but when the FW-190A is said to out-turn the Spitfire as a matter of a "general common sense statement", with no contradictory combat account, that is a general quantitative statement. General, but quantitative nonetheless.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Johnny Johnson: "I asked the Spitfire for all she had in the turn, but the enemy pilot hung behind like a leech.-It could only be a question of time..."

  John Weir:"A Hurricane was very manoeuvrable, much more manoeuvrable than a Spit, so you could, we could usually outturn a Messerschmitt. They'd, if they tried to turn with us they'd usually flip, go in, at least dive and they couldn't. A Spit was a higher wing loading..."

 "The Hurricane was more manoeuvrable than the Spit and, and the Spit was probably, we (Hurricane pilots) could turn one way tighter than the Germans could on a, on a, on a Messerschmitt, but the Focke Wulf could turn the same as we could and, they kept on catching up, you know."

 "-The speed of the FW-190 is slightly higher than that of the Messerschmitt; it also has more powerful armament and is more maneuverable in horizontal flight."

------------------------------------------------------------------



  If concrete real-life value X is said to be always greater than concrete real life value Y, then that is not a quantitative statement?

  You are saying because we don't know what value X is, there is no conclusion that can be drawn from its relationship to value Y?

  Are you sure a scientist would stand behind this statement?


 
  There is another (equally sad) argument that was brought up to muddy the waters of what is a perfectly clear situation:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "-Turning and handling superiority could be related to high speeds, so that the superiority depicted could have been the result of good response at high speed."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



  So for this statement:  "-Being very stable and having a large range of speeds, the FW-190 will inevitably offer turning battle at a minimum speed."

  What that really meant, then, is that turning was superior at high speeds, so that what the text actually refers to is the minimum of those high speeds...

  If that was the intended meaning, "the large range of speeds" earlier in the sentence requires the rest of the sentence to say: "at the minimum of the higher range of those speeds."

  Reading that this sentence, the way it is structured, is meant to say the higher portion of that "large range of speeds", is a perfect illustration of intellectual dishonesty.

  But there is plenty elsewhere to dispel any notion of good high speed FW-190A handling:

-------------------------------------------

 -"Pulling out of a dive, made from 1,500 meters (4,650 ft) and at an angle of 40 to 45 degrees, the FW-190 falls an extra 200 meters (620 ft)." [Meaning after levelling out, continues sinking nose up]

 -"Turning above 250 mph: The P-47 easily out-turned the FW-190 at 10 000 ft., and had to throttle back to avoid overrunning the FW-190."

 -Red Fleet La-5 vs FW-190: "Throughout the whole engagement with a FW-190, it is necessary to maintain the highest speed possible."

-Eric Brown ("Duels in the Sky") p. 128: "Care must be taken on dive pull-out not to kill speed by sinking, or on the dive's exit the FW-190 will be very slow and vulnerable."

-----------------------------------------------------------------


  I fact there is no indication anywhere (except when Kurt Tank mentions light stick forces per G with no maneuverability information), that the FW-190A has anything but terrible handling at higher speeds.

  This alone invalidates any notion that the dozens of quotes I provided could be interpreted as "good high speed handling". There is no account of good high speed turning for the FW-190A. In fact, all the battles (and everything else) point to the opposite: The FW-190A-5's "tendency to black out the pilot" of SC 1718 is very revealing: It shows the FW-190A could inflict punishing Gs by "sinking" tail-out...

  If it was the turn that made the pilot "black out", then it would be the turn "tending to punish the pilot": If it is not the turn punishing the pilot, then it is because it is the aircraft that is decelerating, tail outward, in a loose turn...

  And a loose turn is not good high speed handling.

  The deceleration then is the fault of the aircraft, not of the turn, as Eric Brown explains when he says "kill speed by sinking".

  And "sinking", by the way, that's also pretty bad...

  "Sinking" is not good high speed handling: Brrr!

  Gaston

 

 

 

 

   

 
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: FLS on June 18, 2018, 04:38:25 PM
G load from tail sink? You need to read more. You really don't know what you're talking about.   :cheers:

The main point you're missing, which we know from years of simulator experience, is that the better turning aircraft can lose the turn fight. Your anecdotes simply reinforce that.   :aok
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Krusty on June 19, 2018, 08:26:32 AM
Presenting one small comment that NEEDS more detail but ignoring the details and variables that explain that one small comment is by its very definition cherry picking data to prove your preconceived point. And it doesn't hold water.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Zimme83 on June 19, 2018, 09:40:19 AM
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/sl-wade.html
Quote
In circumstances where the ability to turn quickly or tightly are infinitely variable, and where two aircraft are nearly the same, such as the Tempest V and Thunderbolt II, a great deal depends on the ability of the pilots. Speed must be taken into account if the results are going to be of any real value.

For example, if a Tempest dives on a Thunderbolt with an overtaking speed of only 50 mph, the Thunderbolt will easily be able to avoid the attack by turning, although at the same speed in the hands of equally competent pilots, the Tempest will outmanoeuvre the Thunderbolt. This advantage, however, is no by any means so apparent at high altitudes, due to the greater engine efficiency of the Thunderbolt above 25,000ft.

Similarly, where low-altitude and high-altitude fighters are compared any advantage shown by the former will be reduced as the high-altitude fighter gets nearer to its best operational altitude. After taking all these considerations into account, the position of the aircraft relative to each other will be seen from the diagram.

Once again, the Spitfire maintains top place, followed by the Mustang, Meteor, Tempest and Thunderbolt. Too much regard to this order should not be paid, particularly by the individual who will angrily recall the occasion when he out-turned a Meteor when flying his Tempest. This sort of thing is inevitable, but we can only repeat that where the circumstances are common to both aircraft, these positions are not far wrong.

All trials shows that the spit easily outturns the 190, however, as stated above there are circumstances where a better turner gets outturned, for example if it has a higher speed than its opponent.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Puma44 on June 19, 2018, 11:27:07 AM
(https://s33.postimg.cc/yso1fl4jf/9_BED2_DC9-639_A-482_F-8_B2_F-_EBF8_E3_CDE3_BB.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/yso1fl4jf/)
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: hitech on July 18, 2018, 01:33:22 PM
I would LUV to hear the explanation of how 6g stall speed is different in a dive pull out vs turning. I.E. Corner speed different in turn vs dive.

HiTech
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: morfiend on July 18, 2018, 04:48:56 PM
 Gaston told us Dale!  One's a merry go round and the others the roller coaster!




     :salute
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Puma44 on July 18, 2018, 08:02:31 PM
Gaston told us Dale!  One's a merry go round and the others the roller coaster!




     :salute

You’re talking energy egg, Morfiend!  :salute
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Ack-Ack on July 18, 2018, 08:53:49 PM
You’re talking energy egg, Morfiend!  :salute

So, then one is a rapier and the other is a saber?
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: hitech on July 19, 2018, 10:20:08 AM
Gaston told us Dale!  One's a merry go round and the others the roller coaster!




     :salute

Please show your math work with your answer :)

Also I don't remember answering the Gaston question about the P51, but I'm not doubting his word. I would think my not answering his 2nd question about dive or turn would be because anyone asking that question and posting with such faith in his own knowledge, did not deserve an answer. And any attempt at teaching / discussing concepts would produce nothing but futility.

Also a planes cornering speed is less when heading east vs west because the spinning of the earth causes the plane to go faster in one direction vs the other.  :D

HiTech
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Wiley on July 19, 2018, 11:11:26 AM
Also a planes cornering speed is less when heading east vs west because the spinning of the earth causes the plane to go faster in one direction vs the other.  :D

HiTech

Is the coriolis effect modeled?  Especially in regard to bullets?  :devil  :bolt:

Wiley.
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: morfiend on July 19, 2018, 04:46:35 PM
You’re talking energy egg, Morfiend!  :salute


  Yes,yes.yes!    When on a merry go round you beat the egg till it's scrambled!


  Oh and Dale you did the math for me," Math solve your own problems"... :devil



   So the square root of 6g's times the clean power on stall speed would be part of the Math but I'm not sure if that's for merry go rounds or roller coasters!



     :salute
Title: Re: WWII pilot, combat and flight test reports and quotes
Post by: Puma44 on July 19, 2018, 06:03:15 PM
 :rofl