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- #161
Things I should have asked earlier but didn't
Fuel/Air Ratio
F6F Speeds
Fuel/Air Ratio
At the risk of sounding stupid: Does this apply with carburetor/pressure-carbs only or with direct fuel-injection as well?Rich mixtures don't GIVE you more power, they help you SUSTAIN more power by cooling the cylinder temps and holding off detonation.
F6F Speeds
I should have addressed this earlier, but looking at that speed figure, 400 mph seems completely plausible if no wing-pylon was installed (not sure how common this was at the time of the test).F6F-5 BuNo.58310 reached 395 mph @ 18,750 feet while utilizing Combat power, and this was with a starboard wing pylon installed (known to reduce speed by roughly 5 mph at this height). So we have an honest 400 mph F6F-5 here in a 'clean' condition....
Not bad.That's why I've always considered Hellcat's actually achievable maximum speed to be over 400 mph(about 410 mph). for example, according to AHT, ' Jan. 44, A modified F6F-3, including some of the features to be included in the later F6F-5 version, is flown at a speed of 410 mph at 21000 feet altitude. '