to contradict the 190 being a low-speed, low-altitude turner, all you need is estimates of its wing loading. The d9 is usually estimated at just a hair under 40 lbs/ft^2 clean, and above 50 fully loaded. It may have had its disadvantages at high speed, but that didn't make it a star at low speed either.
Anyhow, sustained turn rate is a misleading figure for maneuverability. A pilot that stops to do extended circles with an opponent is either wasting valuable mission time, or has no other potential targets, and little danger of being bounced and finished off by an unnoticed enemy.
1 on 1 duels are pretty rare, particularly in ww2 where the combat was focused on running battles between interceptors and escorts of bombers and ground-attack aircraft. When the combat moves in one general direction, extended turning becomes a liability - you have to keep up with the moving area of engagement. Energy management is much more important. Rolling manages energy better than turning most of the time - the 190's big advantage. The snap rolls allow it to quickly adjust its guns plane, and quickly evade the guns planes of both fighters and gunners.
Even in head-on passes, better tactics are to rely on turning as little as possible, instead to maintain speed and energy and set up targets for your wingmen. You don't have to outturn a bogey to shoot it down - you just have to maneuver until it's in front of you, or better yet, in front of one of your wingmen, and too slow from turning to dodge their fire (too slow a roller to jink out of plane is a bonus)
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03-14-2010, 05:11 AM
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