I was thinking about a kind of a thread based on fighter-design, known statements by pilots, coupled with performance data as well as known actual capability to create a sort of description of what the plane was built for, how it performed what pilots thought of it, how it was perceived and so on.
For example I remember reading the following
- The Me-109 when flown by allied pilots, they found it a bit difficult to trim the aircraft's elevators
- The German pilots had little issue: They basically used the stab-trim and elevator trim at the same time
- The Spitfire could easily out-turn the Me-109, and was shown to be able to in tests; in real life you'd think it wasn't the case...
- The reason had to do with the fact that many Spitfire pilots were unwilling to push the plane right to the edge and risk a stall (this is not to criticize aircrew, part of it was inexperience, part of it had to do with the fact that stalling would mean death)
- Meanwhile the Me-109's slats would come out and act like a stall-warning.
- The F4F Wildcat could actually turn inside the A6M under some conditions: The problem was the conditions were basically at 300 mph and above, which was only 30 mph off the maximum speed of the plane
- Many Chance Vought aircraft had really huge cockpits because they somehow had hired almost every single tall pilot at the time
- The USAAF/USN had all sorts of trouble with it's 20mm cannon, which the RAF had none
- The gun had no real inherent flaws, but the USAAF essentially fixed it until it was broke
- The La-5 had certain issues in combat with the Me-109 and Fw-190 not just because of performance but because
- The engines had several controls needed to employ the engine correctly whereas the Me-109 and Fw-190 didn't have this issue
- There was also a problem with carbon monoxide build-up in the cockpit, leading many pilots to fly with the canopy open
- The B-29 was had a critical altitude of 33,000 feet: It couldn't really cruise above this, as one would expect because
- The amount of energy to get up there was so extreme you'd either need a light load a long distance or a very short flight
- Typical cruising altitudes were around 31,500 to 33,000 feet, and later more like 14,000-25,000 feet because the climb rate was so slow, it was more efficient to waste less fuel in the climb, and burn a little more in the flight.