Indeed - that was a point I was trying to make. A rather knowledgeable member of this forum pointed many times (not only to me) that a superb take-off power might mean almost nothing for fighter plane applications, where one needs a god power on altitude. Even the 1500-1575 HP (achieved at circa 2300m, no ram effect) could only give a good low alt performance, yet the fighter need to serve well at higher altitudes. Say, 5000m: is not too high for Eastern front, and there the AM-38 has an almost 500 HP deficit there vs. the AM-35A. Again, too bad that Mikulin's team did not produce the 'in-between' engine (green line on the graph; red is for AM-38F, blue for AM-35A; no TO ratings are shown for Mikulins); the comparison between the -35A and 38F is not unlike the one between the engines for the P-51A (no WER here, sorry VVS
)and A-36. And the two-speed modification is way too tempting
Even so, the fighter with AM-38F might've given Germans tough time between SL and 3000m/10000 ft, while having another fighters (with AM-35A) to tackle the LW from above, at least while the 601N and 'restricted' 601E are the major players.
Thanks.
The book on Russian engines says that they could not get to the "required level of reliability" which, considering the life of the AM-35, is saying something. It also says the aircraft designers could not cope with the cooling problems but does not go into details. I may be guessing to much but if it is the aircraft designers and not the engine designers then it sounds like the radiator and inter-cooler installations were giving trouble. Intercooler was an air to liquid intercooler like on the Merlin. Too much drag?
Thanks again. Maybe it was too much to ask from Soviet engineers to solve the issue, because of German onslaught, factories labs relocation etc. VVS shifted it's fighters-allocated resources into the stuff that was giving them less the problems (M-105/Yak-1), so the Mikulin's engines went for one major costumer, the Il-2.
All of this talk is slowly persuading me to start take lessons in Russian,, some time in fall/winter. Too many tick books are at large, all very tempting