As the FW-190 didnt appear till mid 1941 its doesnt concern us really yet
However when it did appear it was a nasty shock to the RAF. The superior speed dive and roll rate meant that the contempory Spit (MkV) was outclassed. As at the time the RAF was launching "Rhubarb and Circus" patrols across to France any Spit shot down was over enemy teritory and the pilot lost, the roles had been reversed now it was the RAF pilots who had to undertake the hazardous channel crossing in a vulnerable liquid cooled fighter.
The "stopgap" answer came with the introduction of the MkIX which was visually indistinguishable from the MkV, eventually this "stopgap" model would be the largest production run of any Spitfire model.
The roll rate problem still persisted and to counter this some Spits had the wings shortened the so called "clipped wing" Spitfires in order to improve the roll rate. This obviously affected high allitude performance but by then the RAF and luftwaffe both seemed to have agreed that 30000 feet was a bloody silly place to have a dogfight.
As for turning neither the FW-190 or the Me109 could outurn a Spitfire. The reason for this is obvious just look at the wing. That wide Spitfire wing simply produces more lift even with you fancy leading edge slats. Also the Spit was a more benign beast when entering or on the edge of stall, it seems that the inner edge of the wing stalled first producing buffeting and giving the pilot plenty of warning that he was about to stall
|