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#23
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The Enlightenment wrote:
"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message snip The Bearcat, as it appeared, was very much in the Spitfire sort of arrangement, with a very high climb rate. It was designed to fight the war in the Pacific, largely below 20,000 feet, with characteristics optimised to defend its base willing to sacrifice range for example. The FW190 outclimbed the Spitfire V by 450 feet per minute. Which FW-190, and which Spit V? The typical FW-190A subtype certainly outclimbed the typical 1941-42 Spit V with max. boost of +12, but not every Spit V and not at every altitude, or at every period. A later Mk. V with max. boost increased to +16 is a different matter, and an LF. V with cropped Mk. 45M or 50M with max. boost increased to +18 is a very different animal indeed, below critical altitude. A FW-190A is generally superior to a Spit V, but you need to be fairly specific. In other words rather than note it the Ta152H-1 had an empty weight around a ton lower than the Spitfire and indeed around the loaded weight of the Spitfire XIV you will announce that shock horror, the Spitfire could have weighed a little more empty. Anything but actually confront the problems with the "best turning" claim. What does empty mean? Does it include all radios, guns, dingies etc that can add up to hundreds of pounds? Well, let's see. In the case of a Spit 21, tare weight is 6,923 lb, "Total Typical Removable Military Load" (4 x 20mm guns, ammo, sight, radio, IFF receiver & detonator, clock, incendiary bomb, crowbar, gun camera, oxygen clinder, dinghy, first aid kit, pilot and parachute) amounts to 1,321.5 lb., then there's 857 lb. of internal fuel plus 81 lb. of engine oil, for a normal combat take-off weight of 9,182.5 lb. The last is the most useful value. Spit XIVscame in around 8,400 - 8,500 lb., Spit IXs came in around 7,500 lb,. and Spit Vs about 6,500 lb. respectively. Turning circle is usually measured at sustained speed without loosing altitude. For instance a Spit might turn inside a Me 109F but the 109 pilot could pull G, use his automatic slats to warn him of incipient stall and bleed of speed faster to turn inside the spit anyway. Of course you don't get to play this trick indefinetly. I like this, please show all those Bf109 pilots that survived turning contests with a Spitfire. How many did so regularly. The Bf109 was easily out turned by the Spitfire, unless the Bf109 was moving much slower, end of story. The Spitfire had the further advantage of a much better signalled stall than either the Fw190 of Bf109. The Bf109 wing slats had a habit of deploying asymmetrically, which caused aiming problems and was a fun effect near the stall. I think that might be incorrect. A 109 might turn inside a Spitfire using this techniqe but he presumably had only 1 turn or less to do it since he would loose energy and speed and thus allow the spitfire to regain the upper hand. The Me 109 might have had a shakey stall due to its slats but this also warning of incipient stall. Furthermore the spitfire had a nasty stall and could spin away. I've never seen any source claim that the Spit had a nasty stall. You certainly can find no mention of it in A&AEE or AFDU handling tests. The spits advantage was its big wing, made possible by high octane fuel restoring the power to weight ratio it would otherwise have losts with its small discplacement light weight merlin engine. The wing had a habbit of twisting and increasing the washout angle thus warning the pilot. **************** PS most links work. http://www.jg53.com/html/history/air...axis-bf109.htm I dispute your claim that the Spit could outturn a 109. The reason being, any test that showed the Spit could outturn a 109 was done at a constant speed (Minimum radius of turn without loss of height) . This is a flawed test because in combat the 109 pilot used the tactic of dumping speed rapidly and making a slower and sharper turn than the Spit was capable of. Remember the 109 had those leading edge slats? That's what they were for! Quote: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- The Spitfire had a lower wing loading than the Bf 109 and this would normally give the better turning circle. However the 109 had help with it's leading edge slats which gave a lower stalling speed, and thus was able to turn tighter than a simple comparison of wing areas might suggest ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Two very different appraisals of the turning circles of the Spitfire and Bf109 can be found in the books "Fighter" by Len Deighton and "The Most Dangerous Enemy" by Stephen Bungay. The former has a diagram showing the Bf109s turning circle to be inside that of the Spitfire (750 feet and 880 feet respectively) while the latter has a diagram showing the opposite (850 feet and 700 feet respectively). Crucially all the tests of mock combats between captured Bf109s and Spitfires always give the Spitfire the edge. http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/spitcom.htm Quote: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Though the Spitfire had a tighter turn radius, the advantage was more theoretical than real since the Messerschmitt's automatic wing slats warned the pilot of impending stalls, enabling average pilots to get the most out of the machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- http://people.history.ohio-state.edu...b/6252ls13.htm Quote: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- However the 109 had a distinct advantage in manoeuvrability and turning circle at low speeds. The design of the 109, with it's leading edge slats gave a lower stalling speed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/jazzitoria/aspit-2.htm MANOEUVRABILITY SPITFIRE TURNING DIAMETER = 1,760 feet. BF 109 TURNING DIAMETER = 1,500 ft. A Spitfire pilot will tell you the Spit could turn inside the 109. A Messerschmitt pilot will tell you the 109 could turn inside the Spitfire! The truth is that both designs were capable of turning circles that would cause the pilot to "black-out" as the blood drained from the head. The pilot who could force himself to the limits without losing consciousness would emerge the victor from a turning battle, and the Spitfire pilots had supreme faith in their machine. The British aeronautical press told them that the wings came off the 109 in a dive or in tight turns, untrue but based on some early wing failures in the 109`s predecessor the Bf108. However the 109 had a distinct advantage in manoeuvrability and turning circle at low speeds. The design of the 109, with it's leading edge slats gave a lower stalling speed. The 109 was very forgiving if stalled, with no tendency for a stall to develop into an uncontrollable spin, something that the Spitfire was prone to. Thus a Messerschmitt pilot was more at home at low speeds than his British counterpart. Not according to the following charts: http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/ea...pit109turn.gif and http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/ea...t109turn18.gif Obviously, this applies only to the Spit I and Me-109E-3, and to an altitude of 12,000 feet, but since we're concerned with stall speeds, the Spit is superior there as well - see the "radius of turn at stall", as well as the stall boundary of the first chart. 5. As for the 109G-2 vs the Mk IX just look at the performance graphs, the 109G-2 is faster than the MK IX right up to 23000 ft. The 109 also outclimbs the Spit below 10000 ft and they are roughly equal between 10000 ft and 18000 ft. Once again the Spit doesn't dominate until the higher altitudes. Lets look at those performance graphs: http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/ea...pit9v109g.html and also he http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/eagles/109gtac.html It's a reall shame that "Fuller's P.R.O. Page" appears to no longer be in existence, as he had put up the various FW-190A flight tests done by the RAF. Guy |
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