ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
ORIGINAL: obvert
All I'm saying is that the P-47D has a very low manoeuvre at below 10k. It is rated at 16. We know that a great difference in speed negates better manoeuvre (like P-47D2 at 429mph vs A6M5 at 350mph), so maybe a great advantage in manoeuvre can negate speed at low altitude? Something happens, because the P-47 ate me alive when I used to fly everything at 31k, even when the HR with Jocke limited his sweeps to 31k too, and they didn't have a dive advantage. That was layering CAP too, just higher up.
Something about the lower CAP layering works better.
The manoeuvre could be tested just putting airframes head to head at different manoeuvre bands with all else equal.
Right, that's basically what I mean. If speed difference between airframe A and airframe B means airframe B gets penalized by 50% maneuver, but airframe B's maneuver is still more than 2* that of airframe A at the given altitude... then it is going to appear as if airframe A is worse at that altitude.
I also think that, by and large, pilots make a much bigger difference here. Granted, P-47 vs. A6M is going to turn out badly for the A6M no matter the pilot quality (unless the P-47 is on escort duty; I'm talking about sweep vs. CAP here), but if it's P-47 vs. George or Frank or Jack... or P-40 vs. A6M... then pilots seem to matter just so much more than the planes.
From my experience, the critical factors to win lopsided successes in the air war are:
- Superior pilots
- Superior airframes
- Superior numbers (either on CAP or escort)
Beyond that, CAP layering and radar are two factors of lesser importance. Then you've all the other stuff listed above.






