Each plane page describes in detail one of Warbird's planes. These pages are broken into three parts, the first being general plane stats, the second being plane performance tests, the third being my tips on flying the plane as well as a bit of history on the particular plane.
Measurements were done via a stopwatch, and the instruments of the 1024x768 art used by the plane. Any inaccuracies of the art will be reflected in the measurements, as will my judgements of unmarked readings (such as where 250mph is on many plane's speed indicator art)
Note that all tests were done with no bombs loaded. Thus all the bomber stats are for unloaded bombers. Any planes equipped with 37mm or 75mm cannon, on the other hand, are tested with a full load of ammunition for these planes, and all planes's guns are fully loaded.
The format of this page follows a typical page, except with description on each section.
Plane: This describes the nomenclature of the particular plane, including it's nickname or common name
Weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): The weights of the plane when empty, when at typical combat weight, and maximum takeoff weight.
Wing Area: The area of the wings.
Wing Loading: For each of the planes weights, the wing loading is derived from dividing the weight by the wing area. It is broken into three numbers, the first being the empty plane wing loading, the second the typical combat weight, the third being maximum takeoff weight. Wing loading helps in instantaneous turns, and sustained turns. A low wing loading allows a higher g load on the plane at a particular speed.
Engine: Describes the horsepower of the engine (base, no WEP), the maker of the engine, and whether it is a radial or inline (liquid cooled) engine. Radial engines tend to take more battle damage before failing.
Flaps: The number of possible settings for the flaps
Visibility: My judgement of visibility conditions for front view, side view, and rear view. This field is only used if a plane has its own art, otherwise it refers to the plane whose art is used.
Control feel: My judgement of control feel for the plane's elevators, rudder and roll (ailerons) at slow speeds (near stall), near the sustained maximum speed of the plane, and above the maximum speed of the plane (fast).
Stall speed: 10 minutes worth of fuel loaded on the plane, the speed the stall horn start kicking in with/without flaps to maintain level flight.
Guns: Table containing the gun type, caliber, rate-of-fire(ROF), firing time (duration), Warbirds' ping "punch", muzzle velocity, and ammunition supply/gun, broken down by primary and secondary banks of weapons.
Ordnance: Breakdown of the ordnance loadouts for ordnance settings of 0-3
Fuel Time/Percent: Time that the engine ran at full power with 1% gas loaded
Power/Weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): The plane's weight divided by the base horsepower of the engine. A rough measure of a plane's acceleration and climbing ability, as well as diving ability to some degree. Lower is better.
Corner Velocity: The speed at which the screen starts to become visible again when pulling a maximum-g turn from 350mph. Somewhat useful for determining instantaneous turn rate. Very useful for TnB fights since this is the maximum speed at which you can turn minimum radius, while at the same time, the minimum speed at which you can pull max G. It is also the point at which your plane is capable of maximum turn rate along that radius, and this turn rate slows down to sustained turn rate levels as speed is bled off (usually quickly).
Durability: My judgement of the plane's ability to take gunfire before falling apart.
WEP time: Duration of WEP, if the plane has WEP
Plane's Maximum Angle-of-Attack (no flaps/full flaps): Plane's Angle-of-Attack determined by AoA study
Plane's wing effective Incidence Angle (no flaps/full flaps): Plane's wing effective incident angle to fuselage, determined by AoA study
The performance measurements phase consisted of stopwatch and other performance type tests. To be real scientific, one has to repeat the test over and over again, doing statistical analysis on the results to determine accurate numbers. As this is a non-professional study of the planes, and because I simply did not have time to spend the 8-12 hours per plane this would require, I did each test once, repeating if the numbers seemed funny. Thus times may be off by 1/2 a second or more, and speeds might be off by 10mph or more. Your Mileage May Vary as the saying goes, but planes with similar numbers in a particular category will most likely perform that category similarly, as far as the combat of Warbirds goes. Also remember that no two pilots will do the same maneuver the same way, so use these numbers only as a guideline.
All measurements were initiated with 10 minutes worth of fuel. I used the Fuel Time/Percent figure to determine a fuel load for 10 minutes, and loaded that amount before each test.
Acceleration:
Load a plane with 10 minutes worth of fuel. Run tests for 1,000ft, 5,000ft, 10,000ft, 15,000ft. At each altitude, slow down to stall speed, at level flight (no flaps). Go to full WEP, and record time (level flight) to 200mph. Engage auto-level, and record time from 150mph to 200mph, and 200mph to 250mph. If the plane is capable of reaching 300mph at this altitude, record time from 250mph to 300mph.
Climb:
Load a plane with 10 minutes worth of fuel. Set altitude to 1,000ft and accelerate to 200mph in auto-level. Go to full WEP and switch to auto-speed (default speed). Record time to 5,000ft, then from 5,000ft to 10,000ft, then from 10,000ft to 15,000ft.
For Zoom Climb, set altitude to 1,000ft and speed 300mph. Slowly pull up into a 90 degree vertical climb. Record altitude gained when speed drops to 100mph. Repeat for 400mph.
Dive:
Load 10 minutes worth of fuel. Set altitude to 5,000ft and speed 200mph. Hit WEP, nose plane down to 60-70 degrees dive, and pull out at 1,000ft. Record maximum speed. At 30 seconds of level flight, record speed. At 60 seconds of level flight, record speed. Repeat for 10,000ft to 5,000ft, 10,000ft to 1,000ft, 15,000ft to 10,000ft, 15,000ft to 5,000ft. The maximum speed indicates diving speed of a particular plane (better divers will have higher numbers). The speed at 60 seconds is approximately how fast the plane will be going sustained, with 30 seconds giving an idea of how fast the plane slows down to the sustained speed. Higher sustained speed allows an extension from a plane with a lower sustained speed. A plane that slows down faster than another will cause the distance to close (or extend if the plane slowing down faster is behind). The rate of slow-down is often referred to as high-speed energy retention, and usually is directly related to drag and plane inertia (plane weight). Heavier planes tend to retain E more than lighter planes, usually a trade off taken with acceleration (Heavier planes tend to accelerate slower without an increase in engine power).
Max Speed:
Load 10 minutes worth of fuel. Set altitude to 0 (on the ground). Hit WEP, take off, and climb to 1,000ft. Use auto-level, wait 2 minutes. Record speed. Set altitude to 5,000ft. Hit WEP, dive to 1,000ft. Use auto-level, wait 2 minutes. Record speed. Repeat process for 5,000ft, 10,000ft, and 15,000ft. The rational behind this test is that planes rarely fly at exactly maximum speed. If diving, they will almost always be going faster than this speed, and if climbing, slower. Different planes accelerate/decelerate better, some have a wider disparity in speeds (climb vs dive), some are real close. The "true" maximum speed lies in between these two numbers.
Turn Performance:
Load 10 minutes worth of fuel. Repeat following for 1,000ft, 5,000ft, 10,000ft, 15,000ft. Accelerate to 300mph (if plane cannot do this at altitude, dive from higher altitude to attain speed). Hit WEP and pull a max-G left turn, and time one 360, then 2 360s (the 2 360s number represents how long to do 2 complete 360 turns from 300mph). Repeat for 250mph. For sustained turn, turn left with no flaps, max-g, until speed stabilizes. Hit WEP, and time one 360 turn. Go to full flaps, max-g turn until speed stabilizes. Hit WEP and time one 360. Next, time all intermediate flap settings to determine optimal flap settings. When two numbers are close, the slower speed setting should be selected for optimal flap settings. Record speed and flap setting at optimal turn (useful in calculating turn radius).
Left turn was selected over right as engine torque helps a plane turning left and hinders it turning right (gyroscopic procession, very noticeable at takeoff). The P38 does not have torque, so turns either way at equal ability. Thus a P38 should turn right with non-P38 planes for advantage, and non-P38 planes should turn left with a P38 for advantage.
Corner Speed and Radii:
Get Corner Velocity from G Limit Study Write-up. Calculate Turn Radius, assuming Corner Speed and 9 g's (use radius = velocity^2 / g's). Get Sustained Turn Speed, no flaps(left turn), 1,000ft. Get Sustained Turn time, 1 360, no flaps. Determine Turn Radius from this data (velocity * time = circumference, circumference = 2*pi*radius). Get Turn Speed and Turn Time, full Flaps. Determine Turn Radius from this data. For corner times, load 10 minutes worth of fuel. At 15,000ft, attain corner velocity. Turn left, maximum-g, time 180 degrees, then 360 degrees. Record these values. Repeat for 10,000ft, 5,000ft, and 1,000ft.
Corner velocity gives the best turn rate/radius. It is the minimum speed at which maximum G can be pulled. In WB this is around 9 g's (see G limit write-up). Actually, this limit is set by the host (use .show to view current value), but offline it appears to be 9 g's (based on my study, see G limit write-up). Minimum 180 and 360 degree time can be attained by a max-G turn from corner velocity.
Corner Turn Rates:
Load 10 minutes worth of fuel. Repeat following for 1,000ft, 5,000ft, 10,000ft, 15,000ft. Accelerate to corner velocity for plane. Pull max-g left turn and time first 180 and 360 degree turns. Record times.
Roll Rate:
Load 10 minutes worth of fuel. Dive to 1,000ft and attain 400mph (350mph for planes that cannot go to 400mph or are completely uncontrollable at 400mph). Time 360 degree rolls from 400mph to 150mph in 50mph decrements.
Minimum Full-Flaps Full-Power Split-S altitude:
Load 10 minutes worth of fuel. Determine minimum safe full-flaps, full WEP power split-s altitude for 300mph, 250mph, 200mph, and 150mph.
Hoof's Tips and Opinions: Some history on the plane, my tips and opinions of the plane.