Leading Edge Slats on the Me-109

[taildraggernut]

Originally Posted by robtek

If you reduce it to that, the key point is that the 109 is controlable all the time, even in a high speed stall, and its adversaries aren't, which is a great achievement by itself and should be represented in game.

I'm not sure why you get that impression of it's adversaries, the NACA report on the MkV (which was the worst Spit in terms of stability) was actually quite good, the 109 is not in control all the time, if an aircraft is stalled it has technically lost control and the reports show the 109 could stall with an uncomanded wing drop, an uncomanded motion is by definition not in control, what should be represented in the game is something close to reality and that reality is that both 109's and Spits had very desireable stall handling qualities with both aircraft being pretty benign and in the Spitfires case having particularily good stall warning, I might add that if you were to believe Crumpp then the 109 also loses elevator control.

STALLING CHARACTERISTICS IN MANEUVERS


The stall warning posessed by the Spitfire was especially
beneficial in allowing the Pilot to reach maximum
lift coefficient in accelerated maneuvers.Because of the
neutral static stability of this airplane, the pilot obtained
no indication of the lift coefficient from the motion
of the control stick, nevertheless, he was able to
pull rapidly to maximum lift coefficient in a turn without
danger of inadvertent stalling.Figure 17 shows a time history of a 180 ° turn in
which the stall was reached. The stall in accelerated maneuvers
was very similar to that in the gliding condition.
with gun ports closed, the pilot was able to pull the stick far back without losing control or interrupting the
turn. The airplane tended to pitch down when stalled and
to recover by itself if the stick were not pulled back.
It would be possible for a pilot pursuing an enemy in a
turn to bring his sights on him momentarily by pitching
beyond the stall without fear of rolling instability.

with gun ports open, a right roll occurred if more
than about 10°up elevator were applied. This reaction
caused the airplane to roll out of a left run and into a
right turn.

Time histories of these maneuvers are shown
on figures 18 and 19. In spite of the lateral instability
that occurred in turns with gun ports open, the pilot
was able to approach maximum lift coefficient closely because
of the desirable stall warning.

The maximum lift
coefficient reached in turns from level flight with flaps
up was 1.22. The airplane could be flown beyond the stall
at even lower lift coefficients.

This value of maximum lift coefficient is closer to
that reached from stalls in straight flight with power
off than the value renched with power on because the slipstream
effects in high-speed turns are relatively small,
The lower value of the maximum lift coefficient offsets, to
some extent, the benefit gained by the Spitfire from its
low wing loading in making turns of small radius. Good
stall warning characteristics appear to be essentiai on an airplane with neutral static stability. In airplanes
tested previousiy, which had neutral static stability and
poor stall warning, inadvertent stalling in rapid maneuvers
was practically unavoidable, The stalling characteristics
of the Spitfire are therefore its redeeming feature.
It should be desirable, however, to obtain these characteristics
without sacrificing a high value of the maximum
lift coefficient.

CONCLUSIONS


The Supernarine Spitfire airplane possessed stalling
characteristics essentially in compliance with the requirements
for satisfactory stalling characteristics given
in reference 1 These characteristics may be summarized
as follows:

1. Warning of the complete stall was provided by the
occurrence of buffeting that set in at speeds several miles
per hour above the minimum speed and by the rearward movement
that could be made with the stick after the start of
the stall flow breakdown without causing violent motions
of the airplane.

2. Stall recovery could be made by application of
down elevator, although the recovery from a roll was somewhat
slower than has been measured on some previously
tested airiolanes.

3. The airplane exhibited no dangerous ground-looping
tendencies in landing. Tail-first landings could be readily
made without the occurrence of either lateral or directional
instability due to stalling.

The airplane posessed some unusual characteristics
in stalls that are not required in reference 1. The motion
beyond the stall was not violent and an unusual
amount of lateral control was available in many flight
conditions, even when full up elevator was applied. The
good stalling characteristics allowed the airplane to be
pulled rapidly to maximum lift coefficient in accelerated
maneuvers in spite of its neutral static longitudinal
stability.

I am struggling to find an aspect in that report saying the Spitfire should spin wildly out of control