Hmm, all these superior LW fighters couldn't even beat a handful of Hurricanes and 3 Gloster Gladiators in Malta.
Do you think that is even close to an accurate account of History? Come on Kev, quit being silly and baiting. You too Kurfurst.
There is a little bit of knowledge in this thread. We could have a great discussion or we can nit pick on each other’s nerves.
Yeah, 2mph is meaningless as you could just as likely find an LF.IX that did 405mph and an LF.XVI that topped at 397mph. All well withing manufacturer's spec.
Exactly. Arguing or even presenting the "fact" my plane is 2 mph faster or slower is comical. It would only have some relative bearing in a side-by-side performance trial. Even the "2mph" is rather relative and would mean one plane was creeping away from the other very slowly. The "2mph" would assume all corrections are absolutely perfect.
It's rather funny some of the "theories" that get pushed on these boards. In the years of research I 've done now a few glaring points stand out.
1. They really did know what they were doing, on all sides. They were much smarter than we are on their own aircraft.
2. No organization spends money on equipment without knowing exactly what that equipment can do. Most important "specifications" are the manufacturers guaranteed performance. These do change too. I can actually trace a few technical developments in the FW-190 form the discovery of the problem, testing, and issuance of new specifications or instructions. Graphs of individual plane performance are useful for gleaning trends or effects of aircraft set up/outfitting. Not for claims of absolute performance of a type.
3. Calculations are generally conservative not optimistic. Simple things, like the mathematical modeling of the atmosphere can have huge effect though and lead to erroneous conclusions. In other words, if you took a flight test vs. a calculation or even two calculations, if the atmosphere model was not the same performance absolute conclusions will not be correct.
In general 90 percent of the "my graph is better than your graph" is just ignorance. I did it too when I was ignorant and now that I am better educated it does not have the same appeal.
All the best,
Crumpp
