Fighter Top speed timeline

[Bug_racer]

Id like to make a layout of WW2 fighters and their top speeds month by month :

eg : September 1939 : BF 109 E1 - 334 mph
Spitfire mk1a : 365 mph

So as far as Ive searched the fastest plane at the start of the war was the Spitfire mk1a .
Rules are : Must be combat ready and in a squadron .
Must be a plane used in European theatre . (we can also do a Pacific thatre later)
Must have credible sources ( If anyone posts a piston plane that flies more than 500mph they will be shot !) . I'll update the first post with a list of all planes .



September 1939 :
1) Spitfire mk1a - 365mph
2) BF 109 E1 - 334 mph

 

[Vincenzo]

334 mph for emil ? it's a typo for 354 i hope

 

[Juha]

Ah, very complicated,
say summer 43 NW Europe
Fastest, excluding Hawker Typhoon and Mustang I, which probably were fastest at low level, but I have not time to check their max speeds
From sea level to 6000ft Fw 190A-5
From 6000 to 8000ft Spitfire F.XII
From 8000 to 12500ft Spitfire F.IX
From 12500 upwards P-47D-10
But when 1,42ata was allowed to DB605A, in Oct 43 IIRC, Bf 109G, Spitfire IX, XII, Fw190A-5 and P-47D-10 had all almost same max speed at 8000ft and Bf 109G, Spitfire IX, Fw190A-5 and P-47D-10 also around 20500ft.

Juha

 

[tomo pauk]

354 was for the E-3 - 1st delivered in January 1940. IIRC.

 

[Kurfürst]

354 was for the E-3 - 1st delivered in January 1940. IIRC.

570 km/h was the same on all models not powered by the DB 601N (E-4/N, E-7/N, ca July 1940) which was probably around 590 km/h at altitude.

E-3s was delivered from the end of 1938, parallel to E-1s!

 

[davebender]

I believe that was only for early production Spitfires. No armor to protect the pilot. No self sealing fuel tanks. No armored windshield. After modifications to make them suitable for combat top speed dropped to 353 mph. Stanford Tuck in his book "Fly for your life" mentions some of these modifications during late 1939/ early 1940.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(early_Merlin_powered_variants)

During the Battle of Britain Spitfire Is equipped with constant-speed propellers had a maximum speed of 353 mph (568 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,100 m), with a maximum rate of climb of 2,895 ft/min at 10,000 ft

 

[Juha]

An addum to summer 43 situation
Typhoon IB and Fw 190A-5 had practically same max speed from SL to 4000ft.
Mustang I with 56" Hg boost was slightly faster than Fw 190A-5 from SL to 4500ft and clearly the fastest fighter in ETO between 5000ft and 11000ft, P-47D-10 became fastest at appr. 12500ft.

Juha

 

[Vincenzo]

An addum to summer 43 situation
Typhoon IB and Fw 190A-5 had practically same max speed from SL to 4000ft.
Mustang I with 56" Hg boost was slightly faster than Fw 190A-5 from SL to 4500ft and clearly the fastest fighter in ETO between 5000ft and 11000ft, P-47D-10 became fastest at appr. 12500ft.

Juha

P-47D-10 in summer '43 ? afaik in summer' 43 there was D-5 and it's the fastest from ~23000 ft (comparate to 190A-5)

 

[Juha]

Hello Vincenzo
you are probably right even if USSR got its first 3 P-47D-10-REs in Sept 43. At least that is what Soviet sources say.

Juha

 

[Vincenzo]

Hello Vincenzo
you are probably right even if USSR got its first 3 P-47D-10-REs in Sept 43. At least that is what Soviet sources say.

Juha

it's not the same i take in consideration data of use in combat not delivery (first 3 probably delivered to test unit). i found that first D-10 lost it's in january '44 but the first D-11 lost it's in november '43

 

[Juha]

Hello Vincenzo
yes, the first 3 (the only D-10s sent to USSR, other 200 were D-22s and D-27s) were delivered for evaluation, and after checking my sources, they were earmarked for delivery in Sept 43, but began their transfer flights only in Nov 43 from Fairbanks and the transfer flight was very protracted affair, planes arrived to Moscow only 20 March 44.
I found one D-10 salvaged in UK on 16 Nov 43, but that plane had crashed on ferry flight, on 11 Dec 43 there were 2 D-10s salvaged, one from 355FG and the other from 56FG, but the latter case is a bit unclear.

Juha

 

[Juha]

dp

 

[Vincenzo]

unlucky i don't found D-10 lost on 16th november i found a D-5 lost the 17th november (42-8614) same for 2 P-47D lost on 11th december were D-5 (42-7967, 42-8606) all 3 were in 56th FG

 

[Juha]

Hello Vincenzo
as I wrote all 3 were salvaged
16 Nov was 42-75145
13 Dec the 56th FG plane was 42-75163 and the 355thFG plane was 42-75045.

Source: Bishop's and Hey's book

Juha

 

[RCAFson]

I believe that was only for early production Spitfires. No armor to protect the pilot. No self sealing fuel tanks. No armored windshield. After modifications to make them suitable for combat top speed dropped to 353 mph. Stanford Tuck in his book "Fly for your life" mentions some of these modifications during late 1939/ early 1940.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(early_Merlin_powered_variants)

With 12lb boost, the Spit 1 could do 359 mph at 11500 ft:

Rate of climb went up, to over 3500FM.

 

[davebender]

Was the Spitfire I using high octane fuel to achieve that performance?

 

[vanir]

Yes. Standard grade aviation fuel was limited to +6lbs, which also meant after high octane was introduced in Britain those far away places like Eastern Europe, Asia and SE Asia were still using standard, so Merlins had to be detuned again. Hurricanes or Spits sent overseas had less performance than at home, probably part of the reason neither impressed the Soviets much, whilst MkII Hurricanes sent to Burma ran like overweight MkI's because of poor fuel quality.
On the other hand Gladiators and Battles/Fulmars in the Mediterranean could be suped up from their standard spec when the higher fuel grade was shipped, so performed better than their listed performance of when they were in home service a few years earlier.
From what I can tell Allisons tended to handle higher pressures on the same fuel grade compared to Merlins.

One thing though, iirc the performance of Spits during the battle of Britain tended to vary dramatically between given examples.

 

[davebender]

It's my understanding the RAF did not release 100 octane fuel for combat use until May 1940. So during 1939 a Spitfire I in combat condition will be topping out at 353 mph.

 

[RCAFson]

It's my understanding the RAF did not release 100 octane fuel for combat use until May 1940. So during 1939 a Spitfire I in combat condition will be topping out at 353 mph.

However, as has been pointed out the earlier Spitfires were lighter and thus faster:

Spitfire Mk I Performance Testing

and topped out at 367 mph.

 

[davebender]

As has already been pointed out, those 367mph early model Spitfires were not combat ready and therefore do not meet the criteria for this timeline.