Can't boil the water in the Spit IX :-)

[Guest deleted@50488]

Yesterday I was lucky to be able to visit the Berkshire Aviation Museum: http://museumofberkshireaviation.co.uk/   - A Must Visit !!!

 

During the visit I had the chance to talk to a few contributors that work in restoration, and one of them was showing me a few interesting ww2 models, including variants of the Spitfire, so I asked him about the "cooling" on the IX series, and if it was problematic. He promptly referred to major problem being the undercarriage while taxiing, and the flaps during approach, outside that there being no problem with the IX series....

 

Well, I'm beginning to believe that even if a bit too optimistic, the IL-2 model makes sense, yet, in situations where the flow is considerably reduced, like in a "prop hanging" situation, heck - it must be worst than the obstruction of the undercarriage ( ? ), it really should get hot !

 

Well, hot or cold ?  ?

[=EXPEND=13SchwarzeHand]

If I remember correclty in an interview Petrovich was asked about the incorrect cooling of the P40 during taxi, since in game it didn´t overheat and pilots accounts said that it overheated very fast in these situations. He answered that this was one of the limitations of their engine and that they were aware of it, but that they had to use approximations modelling the cooling system. I am guessing that this is the same effect, for low airflow on the spit´s cooling.

[klebor]

Now the influence of speed (air flow through radiator) is too small in overal engine temperature equation. It requires fine tuning.

[Barnacles]

3 hours ago, jcomm-in-combat said:

/

 

 

in situations where the flow is considerably reduced, like in a "prop hanging" situation, heck - it must be worst than the obstruction of the undercarriage ( ? ), it really should get hot !

 

Well, hot or cold ?  ?

Maybe not, as the radiators are placed there to take advantage of the airflow generated by the prop. (in part) Edit : I think this is another factor as to why the spitfire is infamous for overheating on the ground, as despite the prop generating airflow, the radiators were partly shielded by the gear legs. 2nd Edit, I still agree that you'd expect that prop hanging would be hard on the cooling system.

Edited June 7, 2018 by 71st_AH_Barnacles

[ACG_Smokejumper]

On 6/5/2018 at 4:07 AM, jcomm-in-combat said:

Forget it guys... Now I know why I can't boil it... 

 

A whole week here at Reading, and I already found out by self experience why it's impossible to boil anything around here... Oh my Hot Portugal ?

 

Were the flight tests all run in the UK ?  It's freeeeeezing guys ! 

 

?

 

 

I actually lol'd. Cheers bud.

[thrila]

Although the report link below for a Spitfire IX fitted with a merlin 61, it was highlighted that 'The Spitfire IX was climbed under maximum continuous climbing conditions, to an indicated height of 39,500 feet where the rate of climb was about 700 feet per minute. It was particularly noticed that the oil and glycol temperatures were normal throughout.'

 

http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit9tactical.html

 

 

[unreasonable]

On 6/10/2018 at 7:40 PM, thrila said:

Although the report link below for a Spitfire IX fitted with a merlin 61, it was highlighted that 'The Spitfire IX was climbed under maximum continuous climbing conditions, to an indicated height of 39,500 feet where the rate of climb was about 700 feet per minute. It was particularly noticed that the oil and glycol temperatures were normal throughout.'

 

http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit9tactical.html

 

 

 

If someone wanted to make an issue of it they would point out that the report also states: "All flights took place under conditions of no cloud and extremely low temperatures,"

 

IMHO, what the previous document show is that a IX without mechanical faults should experience no overheating problems during extended flying "by the book" in conditions up to about 40 C at SL, including with +25 boost.  This leaves open the questions of:

 

1) Flying by the book in extreme temperatures, as experienced sometimes in N.Africa or the Gulf.  I have not found anything about this so far, and it is not a problem for us since we do not have such maps, and cannot even replicate such temperatures in the Editor, which has a maximum input of 40C.  

 

2) Extended prop-hanging. I do not know if anyone ever tested a Spitfire like that: I doubt that any RL pilot would have done this on any other occasion during operations. Why would they?

Nor would people do in the game, except for testing. So it is hard to say what RL outcomes would have been, and irrelevant to normal use. This applies not just to Spitfires.

3) Overheating if forced to wait to take off.  This was definitely a problem for early model Spitfires in particular but in BoS all aircraft stay cool on the ground. This may be a pragmatic piece of game design as much as a limitation of the cooling model.  Do the devs really want people in MP failing to take off because they overheat while taxiing?  I would be fine with it, since I find it increasingly interesting to try to understand the engineering limitations of these planes, but I expect that most players want enough CEM to feel "immersed" while flying but not so much as it interferes with their real purpose, namely fighting.