Maximum Level Speeds

Author's Note: Wells Sullivan has done a complete speed analysis for all the fighters in WB, speed-trialing all the fighters to 30k, in 5k increments. His speed measurement technique is far more accurate than mine (he uses the vertical speed indicator and auto-speed to get precise speed readings). The url for his page is: http://www.iaw.com/~general6/speed.htm

Maximum Level Speed is the maximum speed an airplane can attain in level flight. In almost all cases, an airplane is flying faster or slower than this speed, and if it levels out and flies straight/level, at full power, it will slow down/speed up to this speed.

In order to determine this speed, 10 minutes of fuel was loaded for each experiment. First, the plane was started on the runway. The plane was brought to 1,000ft, and full WEP. Two minutes passed, and the speed recorded. Then the plane was started at 5,000ft. The plane was dived to 1,000ft, leveled out, and brought to full WEP. Two minutes passed, and the speed recorded. This was repeated for 5,000ft (climbing from 3,000ft, and diving from 10,000ft). These are denoted below as "climbing speed" and "diving speed".

Maximum Level Speed, by Plane:

Maximum Level Speed, sorted, averaging dive/climb:

Graph:

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