About our actual SpitIX, test its climb rate at 15-20k compared to G10 or D9 you'll be really surprised. Test its initial dive speed compared to G10 or D9 and you'll be again surprised. Compare their acceleration at any alt above 10k and you'll be again more surprised.
Too much testing for me, but Hammer has already done it.
http://www.netaces.org/home.html#title Climb rate between 15 and 20k. The G10 beats the Spit by a large margin, the D9 by a narrower one.
Dive acceleration, the G10 and D9 both beat the Spit IX at all but the lowest speeds.
Level speed acceleration, the G10 and D9 both beat the Spitfire comprehensively. Only at 25k does the Spit overtake the Dora, and only at 30k does it pass the G10.
The current Spit IX is modelled after one of the first 300 or so Spit IXs to be built. The next 5000 or so all had improved performance. They were produced and used from early 1943 on.
The possible options for a late war RAF fighter are:
Tempest (already perked, and very high priced too)
Spit XIV (not here, unlike most of it's contemporaries from other nations. High priced perk when it arrives)
Meteor (High priced perk if it ever gets modelled)
Those are the aircraft that were actually introduced in 1944, comparable to the mainstream unperked rides in the MA, like the Dora, G10, La7, P51 etc
The main RAF fighter at that time was the Spit LF IX. Very few, if any, of the basic Spit F IXs were still in use then.
The only realistic option (also the worst option, for an RAF fan) that will introduce a post 1942 unperked British fighter, is the Spit IX LF, HF, or F with Merlin 63. All will be faster than the current AH SPit, by up to 20mph at low level, slightly more if clipped wing. All will be much slower than the La7, P51, Dora, G10 etc.
If the perk system classifies an early 43 prop fighter, that was produced and used in huge numbers, with the likes of the Ta152, F4U-1c, Me262, P-51H, and F8F, then there is something very wrong with the perk system.
Remember that this is not a boom&zoom arena, we have always a lot of warnings: icons, radar dots, radar bars, black dots in distance, etc. In this environment the top speed advantage of D9 or G10 means little compared with the Spit characteristics, and obviously, the Spit will be always a much more succesfull aircraft.
Much more successfull? Last full tour, the Dora had a kill death against the Spit of 1.56 to 1.
Speed means more in such an enviroment, where you can tell an opponents identity immediately, you can engage or disengage at will. Spot a high Spit and just run, he will never catch you. Blow you e advantage, or get caught by a Spit, and again just run, he will never catch you. Against a good pilot, the Spit driver has less chance. Perhaps that is why your kill death ratio against the Spit IX is better than your (very good) kill/death ratio as a whole, Mandoble.
[ 08-07-2001: Message edited by: Nashwan ]
