Realism, whats missing?

[Gaston]

Originally Posted by Treetop64

I'd be interested in seeing the MoI numbers, as well as all the other parameters.

At any rate, from the flight modelling point of view, I think the very point of "realism" in IL-2 isn't so much about getting the absolute correct results for a particular aircraft, as much as it is about getting the relative performance between all the aircraft in the game within an acceptable bracket.

I think Il-2 is a long, long way from "relative aircraft performance" accuracy, like all simulation games, and should instead just be content to offer some realism on "general aircraft behaviour", which I'm sure it does a fair job of...

If you want a closer approximation of how the different aircraft models actually compared in combat (if any combat pilot account is to be believed -as opposed to test pilot account-, you should substitute aircraft names to get a closer approximation of how they ranked in actual horizontal (and sometimes vertical) combat maneuvers... Unfortunately, this would still leave you with mostly inaccurate vertical performance, which are usually closer as is, so I tried to get them as close as possible taking that into account...:

Spitfire Mk V-: Fly as if a P-47D Razorback

FW-190A-4: Fly as if a Spitfire Mk V

Spitfire L.F. Mk IX: Fly as if a P-47M

FW-190A-5: Fly as if a Spitfire F. Mk IX

Spitfire Mk XIV: Fly as if a P-47M

FW-190A-8: Fly as if Spitfire F. Mk IX, or maybe a Ki-100.

P-47D Razorback: Fly as if an early Spitfire F. M IX

P-47D Bubbletop: Fly as if a Me-109G-2 with Gondolas

Me-109G-6: Fly as if a FW-190D-9

P-51D Mustang: Fly as is maybe...

FW-190D-D9: Fly as if a P-47D Bubbletop

Ki-84 Frank: Fly as if a FW-190D

Ki-100: Fly as if an A6M5, or A6M8 if possible...

The wonderful thing is most Spitfire virtual modelling does seem to overstate wildly the Spitfire's roll rate, so these virtual Spitfires are a fairly good impression of what a FW-190A was actually like in real-life, minus the Spitfire's better climb rate: The Mk V is probably the closest on that account...

And yes the Ki-84 was much faster, but a complete anvil compared to the Ki-100 (and an anvil even compared to the P-47N)...: The Japanese did extensive comparisons with both types, and found one lone Ki-100 could take on 3 Ki-84s and win, then switch pilots and do the same again...

Yes, there is a "kink" in the flight physics somewhere... And we never bothered to find out what it was... You have to remember these specific types of low-wing stressed-skin single-engine aircrafts were truly "active" for under two decades, "football wars" notwithstanding...

Gaston