G2

[4thFG_Cpt_Godfrey]

Some of us are indeed experts in the field. For example, I am an aerospace engineer, and I can tell you that while you can choose either to accept that there are certain hard truths to which aircraft must comply, or choose to stick your head in the sand and go with "anecdata", a great deal of our modern world is built on the experts whose knowledge you're so willing to throw away. The same rules and principles we use to design modern fighter aircraft, airliners, UAVs, etc. are all applicable to the study of wartime aircraft and their performance. This isn't stuff that gets pulled out of someone's ass; engineers and scientists have been studying the physics of flight for more than a century. Are we to assume that because some anecdotes appear to you to contradict what science predicts, that these "experts" are clueless idiots? Or do you think it's more likely to be a case of not having the complete picture?    

 

It's true that no two aircraft perform exactly alike. But what many laypeople fail to grasp is that the general trend is more important, and the vast majority of pilot anecdotes simply lack sufficient context necessary to draw performance conclusions. You can't just read memoirs from Pokryshkin that purport to show La-5s outzooming 109s from roughly-equal energy states and assume that the La-5 should therefore always outzoom the 109. That's not how real life works.

 

As for Yaks that "lose no speed", well yes, it would "go against basic physics" but thankfully that is not the case and you are just exaggerating to support your agenda.

 

13GIAP_opcode

 

Thanks, you just proved my point. My agenda? defend someone's right to freely speak his mind.

[JG13_opcode]

No, just NO! There was no action above D-Day. 

Whatever, I think you know what I'm getting at.  A late-war European scenario.

 

I don't personally love those scenarios but there's a certain crowd that won't fly unless they can have their precious Spitfires or P-47s.

13GIAP_opcode

 

Thanks, you just proved my point. My agenda? defend someone's right to freely speak his mind.