Stuka dive flaps?

[Pyro]

Originally posted by Widewing
Dive flaps on dive bombers are there to provide drag, thus limiting the maximum speed. I seem to recall that a typical Stuka, with dive flaps extended, had a maximum (terminal) speed of around 250 mph. These are required due to the duration of the dive, often extending to 10,000 ft. or greater.

I once had a document that dealt with dive characteristics of the Ju 87 and Ju 88 but here I just used some testimony from Eric Brown's test flight.  He stated a max dive speed of 387 which it crept up to in his test dive.  Of course, he didn't have an additional 4000 lbs strapped to the plane which would change that a great deal.

[MRPLUTO]

According to Richard Townshend Bickers' excellent book, "The Battle of Britain", the Stuka began its dive from 15,000 ft./4,000 m.  The dive angle was 80 degrees, and the maximum speed attained was 350 knts.  The plane pulled out automatically at 4,000 ft. and the bomb was dropped.

MRPLUTO  VMF-323  ~Death Rattlers~  MAG-33

[GScholz]

I guess the whiners that predicted "no real use" for the Stuka in the MA can eat their own words now.

Eric Brown also mentioned in his testflight that the Stuka was a "true" 90 degree dive bomber. He rode it down vertical and he said that it didn't have that "runway" feeling he got in the other DB's he'd flown.

Anyways ... the Stuka will never see as much action as the fighters in the MA (duh), but it may not be uncommon to hear "WARNING! HIGH STUKAS COMMING DOWN NOW!!!" screamed over VOX.