Ha. Know nothing, heh? I don't think it works quite that way, but you're welcome to your own opinion Indian.
My views have been stated, and have been pretty reasoned and balanced. There are those who have made, simple, black and white type statements on both sides. I don't think that either is a reasoned response. My opinion has been moved towards a more favorable view of the F4U-1C overall. I still don't like the airplane, but I don't object to its presence any longer. It seems that people need to learn to avoid playing its game.
My computer is mostly working now, and should I be able to resolve the problem I'm having with my joystick and throttle I'll be joining you guys, at least for the two week trial. I'm interested to see how much has changed online since the beta (I'm well aware of how offline stuff has changed, e.g. aircraft performance).
Nashwan, I don't know who told you that the Spitfire XIV could only hit 470 in a dive, but they're wrong. As was stated by funked above, the Spitfire dove to mach .92. It wasn't the wings, airelons, rudder or elevators that failed either, it was the propeller (prop drag anyone?). As modeled offline, most of the fighters seem to be overly fragile where G stress is concerned (not that this statement is related directly to Nashwan's comment). I should note that I haven't G-stress tested all of the fighters. Back to Nashwan's comment, a fighter that could make 448 in level flight certainly wouldn't fail at only 22 mph faster, if that were the case the fighter couldn't hope to servive even a shallow full power dive. The Spitfire's airelons do get heavier, as the speed goes up above 350ish the roll rate drops dramaticly. But as the speed goes up lateral stability goes up as well and the strong torque on the Spit XIV is compensated for. The Spitfire didn't suffer from bad compressability like the P-38, A6M Zero and Typhoon did, and so could pull out of higher speed dives than they could (I'm not that familar with the compressability of other fighters). One thing to note is that the roll rate on the Spitfire was improve throughout its career, so that a Mk XIV would out-roll a Mk I by quite a bit (particularly to the left
). The 109 did not improve in this way and a 109E rolled almost exactly the same as a 109G or K. The Fw-190 could easily out-roll any Spitfire at any speed.
Ripsnort, I'm getting done, but not quite yet.
Sisu