Sentence of the week so far.In all fairness, however, it may have been the best Gunnery Target.
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Sentence of the week so far.In all fairness, however, it may have been the best Gunnery Target.
Calum another poster here (forum name Snowygrouch) posted a lot of info about German aircraft performance. As the war went on the build quality of airframes and engines went down so much that the actual performance was nowhere near what they should have beenHello!
I was intrigued by reading of this interview with Golodnikov, especially by his mention about true performances of German fighters (color plus some correction of the text by me):
"A. S. Nikolay Gerasimovich, if you look at any reference book, the superiority in speed of German aircraft [like] the Bf-109G and FW-190 is indisputable. Minimum 20-25 kilometers at low altitudes and up to 80-100 kilometers at high altitudes. And you say ours did not lag behind?
N. G. No, some difference in speed always exists. At low altitudes we were a bit faster, at high altitudes they were. The difference was on the order of 10-20 km. But this difference was not so great that it ensured overwhelming superiority. In combat it was practically not discernible.
A. S. Nikolay Gerasimovich, sometime relatively long ago I was speaking with a pilot, a frontline veteran. Right after the war they flew in captured aircraft. And no matter how hard they tried, they were unable to attain the speeds the Germans had written in their specifications. The shortfall in speed was significant. In the end, they prevailed upon a German, a high-level specialist, and asked him, "Why this shortfall in speed? Are we using the engine's capability incorrectly?" His response was that they would never achieve the target speed, because the German specifications showed the theoretical speed, and they were attempting to attain that speed on their instruments.
Nikolay Gerasimovich, in your view, is this possible?
N. G. Of course. We had a group of specialists with us from NII VVS. They were examining specifications and were looking at speed. "What speed is indicated at 7,000 meters? 780? Take away 100. And what about 3,000 meters? 700? Reduce it 70 km." This is how they calculated the instrumented speed and, characteristically, almost always hit their target. Perhaps they knew something about our focus on speed."
I wonder what they mean for "theoretical speed": didn't Germans actually test in flight their planes? And what is this "instrument speed" they speak of?
I would be glad to know your opinion. Cheers,
GB
I think that's the first time I ever read "P-39" and the words "…didn't need higher speed for their mission." in the same sentence.
Says the guy who's banned
Perhaps one of the ex-RAF P-400s from Australia recently arrived?RAF fin flash on the right?
I believe that's "Honourably banned" to be technical...Says the guy who's banned![]()
And proud of it.I believe that's "Honourably banned" to be technical...