Originally posted by SgtPappy
'No. By that argument, the F-15 (weighing about four times your average World War Two fighter) shouldn't be able to turn well at all. But it does! In fact, it turns much better than aircraft with far, far lower wingloading. The reason is powerloading.
Powerloading and liftloading cannot be dismissed as easily as you do. Dismiss aspect ratio and the others if you must as "less than secondary," but powerloading is easily the most important factor in turning ability. After all, missiles don't need wings. Liftloading, a good indicator of climbing ability, also greatly impacts turning ability.
I'm no aeronautical engineer. I don't know much about aerodynamics. But I do know enough to know that you're making a big mistake when you calculate turning ability based soley or even just mostly on wingloading.' - Benny Moore
When we look at Benny's quote, we need to understand that WWII fighters didn't have much thrust. Especially when compared to modern jets like the F-15, which has 58,000 lb of thrust available.
A typical WWII fighter has considerably less than 2,000 lb of thrust to propel it through the air. Some late-war fighters have a bit more, but not much more.
Here's a simple calculation presented by Francis Dean in his book America's Hundred thousand.
375 x prop efficiency (let's use 80%, or .8) x horsepower / speed.
So, we have the Spitfire Mk.XIV doing 358 mph at sea level making 2050 hp.
375 x .8 x 2050 / 358 = 1,718 lb of thrust.
How about the Spitfire Mk. IX?
375 x .8 x 1660 / 314 = 1,586 lb of thrust.
The Spitfire Mk.XIV has 108% of the Spit Mk.IX's thrust at sea level. just 8% more.
Let's use the F4F-4 for contrast.
375 x .8 x 1,000 / 285 = 1,052 lb of thrust.
Now, look at the F-15 again. It has roughly 34 times more thrust than a Spit14!
That F4F-4 easily out-turns a Spit16, and it does so with only 61% of the Spit14's thrust. So, I ask you; how important is thrust as compared to wing loading and lift coefficient? Not important at all at these levels of thrust.
My regards,
Widewing