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KraziKanuK said:The Flettner was a not trimable. It moved in the opposite direction to what the rudder moved. It was used to decrease the 'work load' for the pilot at high speeds.
Yes they will apparently come out at higher speeds with higher angles of attack. You then conclude that this makes for a turn advantage.
The fact is, a high speed turn does not involve just elevator, it involves rudder and a bank angle.
Tests clearly showed that in such a turn, the tendancy of one slat to deploy well before the other created a turn disadvantage, not an advantage.
Pilots had to make their high speed turns such as to avoid a slat popping out, and if it did, they had to release the stick for several seconds to allow it to go back in and then recover control.
Furthermore, slats were advantageous if the fueslage weight far exceeded the weight distrubuted to the wing. When the wing weight was relatively high, they tend to cause near or totally unrecoverable flat spins.
And if you read about the 109 and its ability to pull out of a dive, the trim tab had to be set all the way toward climb to do so. More importantly, in a high speed dive the 109 was totally unstable as a gun platform starting, if I recall correctly, below 400 IAS (I think it was 375 IAS).
Soren said:Yes they will apparently come out at higher speeds with higher angles of attack. You then conclude that this makes for a turn advantage.
That is because it 'is' an advantage in a T&B fight.
Soren said:The fact is, a high speed turn does not involve just elevator, it involves rudder and a bank angle.
No'one ever said this. Offcourse a rolling maneuver must be achieved for a turn, and the 109F had an equal roll rate to the Spit V up to 400 mph, so it wasnt a problem.
Soren said:Tests clearly showed that in such a turn, the tendancy of one slat to deploy well before the other created a turn disadvantage, not an advantage.
Oh no !! That is 'not' true ! This 'Myth' was started by Eric Brown, because the E series had a high tendency for the slats Jamming, but this was not their normal function. Also the F series had this jamming problem virtually eliminated.
Pilots had to make their high speed turns such as to avoid a slat popping out, and if it did, they had to release the stick for several seconds to allow it to go back in and then recover control.
Sadly only one man will agree with you on that... (Eric Brown) And Every modern day 109 pilot will disagree with him on that. And this downright inexperienced comment made by Brown was denied by virtually every 109 pilot still alive at the time, including Galland ! Not to mension Germany's chief test pilot, Heinrich Beauvais who even tried to contact Brown and correct his statement, but Brown refused to meet him ! He refused to be proven wrong by an expert !
Soren said:The slats were there to increase maneuverability, not to hamper it. The slats were found beneficial in ALL situations. Why else do you think there were put on a 'Fighter' ?!
Soren said:Furthermore, slats were advantageous if the fueslage weight far exceeded the weight distrubuted to the wing. When the wing weight was relatively high, they tend to cause near or totally unrecoverable flat spins.
Eric Brown
Soren said:And if you read about the 109 and its ability to pull out of a dive, the trim tab had to be set all the way toward climb to do so. More importantly, in a high speed dive the 109 was totally unstable as a gun platform starting, if I recall correctly, below 400 IAS (I think it was 375 IAS).
I guess you havent read the AFDU's tests with the 109F i presented, so i will quote it again.
AFDU 28 October 1941: TACTICAL TRIALS Me.109F AIRCRAFT- 7:
No manoeuvrability trials were carried out against other aircraft but the Me.109F was dived up to 420 mph, IAS, with controls trimmed for level flight and it was found that although the elevators had become heavy and the ailerons had stiffened up appreciably, fairly tight turns were still possible.
Soren said:In many aspects the Messerschmitt 109 is a much better fighter than people usually make of it. It has some of the legendary "how did they think of that", high-tech-like, aspects as North American P-51 and Supermarine Spitfire had. While Spitfire had the much vaunted elliptical wing (effect of which is only theorectical), the P-51 had its (again , much debated) laminar flow wing (trapeze in this case) and a very interesting cooler arrangement with a device for splitting and separation of the "dirty" turbulent boundary layer, and the capacity to generate thrust by heating the air flowing through it to negate the otherwise very high cooler drag (again, much debated); 109 had some very nice aspects too.
109 had a hydraulically driven (fluid coupled) clutch driving its supercharger, which made it capable of avoiding wasting power at lower altitudes. At those altitudes normal gear+clutch driven supercharger equipped planes were wasting a significant amount of their HP compressing air which could not be used by the engine. Later 109s even had a two gear, fluid coupled supercharger which gave very good power up to 11km.Even a normal 109G could produce full power up to 7 km (around 21.000 ft) with a normal single-gear supercharger. This supercharger was a low tech (sic), single stage single gear (sic) device, while the Allied designers used up to two stage, intercooled (in some cases) two gear superchargers to achieve similar power as the simple fluid clutch.
Soren said:Later on (P-38, P- 47, bombers) Allied designers used bulky and hard-to-manufacture turbo-superchargers to keep up with the latest German advances. The engine used by 109s (DB601, DB603, DB605) had a direct to chamber fuel injection. Daimler Benz engines could compete with British and US engines using high octane fuels and very hard alloys, while itself using only 87 octane fuel !.
Soren said:As for some interesting details on the 109, it had a very interesting cooler arrangement that actually resembles very much that of the P-51. It happens that the coolers, which look like very small, are in fact embedded into the wings and have a very low wetted surface. Also they look like normal coolers which just dip into the airflow , but they are a bit more complex. The cooler is embedded in the wing so that a plate over the cooler would skin off the dirty boundary layer like in the P-51 cooler and let it pass , while using the "clean" air for cooling. This makes it possible to use less surface for cooling which means more speed.
The similarities don't end here, just as in P-51 the cooler rear end has a plate designed to adjust the amount of air flowing through the cooler (it is opened and closed automatically or with manual override). The design of this flap seems quite the same as the one on P-51, which was designed to generate the "Meredith Effect". The Meredith Effect is actually a cooler acting like a jet engine. Jet engines are actually very simple, you have a compressor compressing air, fuel heating it and a nozzle turning the heat into momentum. In this case you have a cooler heating the air, the mouth of the cooler (and airspeed) compressing the air and the flap on the back working as a nozzle to convert heat to momentum. This effect could generate up to 300hp on the P-51 and it would in most cases (high speeds) almost zero out the drag of the cooler scoop.
Soren said:As for ammunition, the Germans were ahead of their time. They used similar centrifugal fusing in the 20mm and 30mm shells that was common before the modern proximity fusing became available. They used thin-shelled cannon shells which could contain up to 4 times more explosive than normal shells. They used very high order explosives (compared to the ones Allied were using, HA41 and PETN against torpex).
Soren said:Germans also realized that the most efficient way to kill an aircraft, in addition to penetrating it with armor piercing rounds (which do little damage unless they hit one of the important parts), is to make large holes with large explosive shells or to use incendiary ammunition to light the plane up. The incendiary devices used by the Germans were excellent and were made of materials like magnesium, elektron thermite and phosphor. Phosphor has the effect of lighting up in room temperature and in general burning everything if it is in contact with oxygen. Elektron thermite on the other hand (a mixture of magnesium and aluminium) burns at a VERY high temperature (so high that it will light up airplane aluminium).
Soren said:Most German aircraft had electrically operated (fired) armament, which made selection of different weapons configurations and counting of ammunition easy. Some of the planes also had a mechanism to pneumatically reload guns when the trigger was released if the last shell was not fired. This made it possible to unjam the guns just by pressing the trigger repeatedly.
Soren said:It was possible to change the whole engine and/or wings of a 109 standing on its wheels in a matter of a few hours with no special lifts (only a mechanical hoist was required).
Soren said:All these things are very often forgotten !
RG_Lunatic said:Mis-quoting or intentionally putting a partial quote out of context as you have done hre is unacceptable Soren.
Soren said:And Every modern day 109 pilot will disagree with him on that.
DerAdlerIstGelandet said:I will deffinatly say that certain versions at certain times during the war could have done so. Forinstance when the F came out I would say yes she could outturn a Spit of the same day.
RG_Lunatic said:DerAdlerIstGelandet said:I will deffinatly say that certain versions at certain times during the war could have done so. Forinstance when the F came out I would say yes she could outturn a Spit of the same day.
Perhaps, but it would be close. But the way Soren describes it, any 109 could out turn any Spitfire any day of the war.
=S=
Lunatic
RG_Lunatic said:Jeeze, can't you take a little kidding there Soren? My appologies, I really didn't mean to offend you.
Read Alder's post on this.
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=59489#59489
Loads of German aces saying otherwise.
Oberleutnant Gerhard Schöpfel, Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 26 wrote of the Me 109 E: It was superior to the Hurricane and above 6,000 metres, faster than the Spitfire also. I believe that our armament was the better, it was located more centrally which made for more accurate shooting. On the other hand, the British fighters could turn tighter than we could. Also I felt that the Messerschmitt was not so strong as the British fighters and could not take so much punishment.
Günther Rall, who served with III./JG 52 during the Battle of Britain, reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of the adversaries at that time: The elliptical wings of the Spitfires had fantastic characteristics, great lift. They were very maneuverable. We couldn't catch them in a steep climb. On the other hand they could stall during inverted maneuvers, cutting off the fuel because the force of gravity prevented the flow of fuel. But they were still a highly respected enemy. In contrast, our Bf 109s had shortcomings. I didn't like the slats and our cockpits were very narrow, with restricted rear visability. Fighter pilots need a good all-round field of vision and we didn't have it. 64 Adolf Galland wrote of the matchup: "the ME-109 was superior in the attack and not so suitable for purely defensive purposes as the Spitfire, which although a little slower, was much more manueuverable" and in a fit of frustration uttered the famous passage to Göring "I should like an outfit of Spitfires for my Squadron".
Oblt Hans Schmoller-Haldy of JG 54 commented: My first impression was that it had a beautiful engine. It purred. The engine of the Messerschmitt 109 was very loud. Also the Spitfire was easier to fly, and to land than the Me 109. The 109 was unforgiving of any inattention. I felt familiar with the Spitfire from the start. That was my first and lasting impression. But with my experience with the 109, I personally would not have traded it for a Spitfire. It gave the impression, though I did not fly the Spitfire long enough to prove it, that the 109 was the faster especially in the dive. Also I think the pilot's view was better from the 109. In the Spitfire one flew further back, a bit more over the wing. For fighter-versus-fighter combat, I thought the Spitfire was better armed than the Me 109. The cannon fitted to the 109 were not much use against enemy fighters, and the machine guns on top of the engine often suffered stoppages. The cannon were good if they hit; but their rate of fire was very low. The cannon had greater range than the machine guns. But we were always told that in a dogfight one could not hope to hit anything at ranges greater than 50 metres, it was necessary to close in to short range.