It seems to me that most aircraft in AH perform in a manner that is a reasonable approximation of the real thing. But some are well off of their real world performance.
I understand that the F6F-5, Ki-61-I and P-51s underperform in AH. The F6F-5 is ~20mph too slow at alt, I don't know about the deck speed. The data Widewing posted shows the Ki-61 turning about like a FM2 in US Navy tests, but in AH it turns more like a P-47. The P-51s lost a lot of turn capability in one of the resent revisions and are now out turned by P-47s.
It seems to me that the F4Us, Hurricanes and maybe Bf110s overperform. The F4Us gain a suspicious ammount of lift from their flaps, allowing them to out turn aircraft with much, much lower wing loading. The Hurricanes may roll 50% too fast and seem not to suffer manueverabilty hits from high speed dives despite having fabric ailerons. The Bf110s might be a bit agile, hard to say though.
DOes anybody have any data on any issues (even data that says I am wrong) with AH aircraft flight models?
I can make a quantitative comparison to show why the P-51's turn ability is
comparitavely correct. However, my comparison seems to be countered by annecdotal evidence to the contrary. What I will say is that to do so to a degree that approaches the detail that HTC uses to model flight in game would take many hours. So, given my knowledge of aerodynamics, I can easily push the "I believe" button for the P-51 in game.
Furthermore, lets assume that the same math equations used to control flight dynamics in game are used for every aircraft (i.e. 2+2=4 for every plane). Wouldn't it be safe to assume that, unless there has been some sort of handicapping by HTC, that all planes perform identically, with respect to their relationship with all other aircraft in the plane set? Given that assumption, perhaps its the data with which the math equations are acting upon that is, or should be, the focus of our research?
For example, does anyone know a resource that shows the aileron area, station on wing, and maximum deflections up and down, for the Hurricane? If, for example, the aileron in AH is modelled with a +/- 30 degree deflection value, and in real life, it only deflected +/- 25 degrees, then there could be an inconsistency. I've got a feeling that each aircraft is thoroughly researched prior to being modelled, but given that some information on these aircraft is missing or left out of the historical record, there may have been some extrapolation done to make up for any omitted information.
