General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: SIM on May 11, 2023, 10:22:54 AM
Title: Fastest piston engine fighter
Post by: SIM on May 11, 2023, 10:22:54 AM
This is an interesting video rating/discussing the top 20 fastest piston engined fighters.
Title: Re: Fastest piston engine fighter
Post by: drgondog on May 22, 2023, 11:24:18 AM
The XP-51G should have been mentioned with 495mph top speed at 22000 feet.
The very real problem with the summary - as objective as he tried to be - was not beng able to source actual testdata with specified gross weight to design weight, as well as any additional data such as presence of wing racks (like P-51D flight tests, use of 150 octane fuel and associated boost.
The P-51D in combat config w/racks and 75" boost was > 450MPh at max GW. without racks (no data) i was projected ~460mph. The May 1945 testing of P-51D-15 at 67" w/racks and partial fuselage tank fuel at 9700 pounds zipped at 442mph. That would have been a combat condition after dropping external tanks near Brunswick to Berlin combat radius.
There are zero published tests for Do 335 > 440mph due to aproliferation of cooling and resonance issues discovered in Jan 1945 tests (published) at 430mph.