Know thine enemy ...
Last Update: 10/10/97 (Changes)
Note: If you're looking for my World War II Online pages, go to: http://www.hoofsperformance.wwiionline.com
Author's Note: As many readers already know,I have been hired as a programmer for Interactive Magic Online(makers of Warbirds). As such I will probably not be able to makemuch changes to this page for a while. But I did want to statethat this page is *NOT* official IMOL material, this page is aprivate page of the author (me), and represents my views,opinions, and test results, *not* IMOL's. Thus nothing in thispage (unless otherwise specified) is "official", andthus should not be treated as such. I hope to continue this pagein the theme it was created, and test new aircraft as they becomeavailable to the general public. (this had to be said, otherwise*someone* will take something I say as "official" IMOLpublication)
One of my hobbies ever since I started flying ICI's Warbirdshas been to test the planes of warbirds so I'd know how eachperforms relative to each other. This has grown from a simplesustained-turn timing test between the SpitV vs other TnB planes,to testing acceleration/turn rates at different altitudes, tothis web page. Basically, I decided one day that if I'm spendingliterally dozens of hours timing these planes, why not make a Webpage so all can see how these planes fly? So here we are.
The organization of this page consists of a methods pagecontaining the description of my testing methods and what Itested, a series of links to individual plane pages, followed bycharts comparing these planes. As this is a "work inprogress" (dreaded phrase :) , things get added on a regularbasis, new planes, more comparison charts, writeups, and moredetail on plane performance. As the planes are up to date, I amslowing up a bit, and doing a release every month or two.
The philosophy behind these tests is to test the actualWarbirds planes. Numbers and figures pulled from history are fineand dandy, but when we fly in WarBirds, we have to deal with theplanes as they are modeled in Warbirds, however accurate they maybe. For the fighter information part of each plane's page, I'vedone a bit of research, to find out what each plane's componentsare (such as wing area, weight, engine, etc). For the performancepart, I set up a standard testing pattern, set each plane up with10 minutes of fuel, and used a simple stopwatch and theaircraft's flight instruments. Thus, someone repeating my testsmight come up with different numbers, but that is OK, since theintention here is *comparison* of planes, and if two plane'sfigures are close, then they probably will do the same stuff inWB. And finally I wrote a small blurb on my tips and opinions onflying the particular plane, it's strengths/weaknesses, as wellas a bit of history on the plane.
Some of the plane's information (such as weights, wing areas,and engine types/power) are missing and this represents a lack ofinformation on my part. I am doing research on the side for asmany planes as possible to provide accurate data on the planesand WarBird's implementations, but if someone has someinformation I don't I would be more than happy to receive Emailon the subject referring me to books or giving me some of mymissing stats (preferably with sources to back it up). I wantthese pages to be as accurate as possible, so that people can getan accurate comparison of the diverse plane set in warbirds!
Anyway, enough blabbering! On to the planes!
Warning: these pages use tables. This was virtuallyunavoidable considering the nature of the data being displayed.
Note: all speeds in these pages are Indicated Air Speed!Since WB instruments focus on Indicated Air Speed and not TrueAir Speed I decided to use Indicated Air Speed for allmeasurements. Altitude information accompanies all speedrecordings for use in conversion to True Air Speed if desired.
Also note: all tips and writeups on the plane pages arethe author's opinion only and are not intended as professionalwriteups but merely my opinion of the planes based on the dataand my experiences with them (as well as my knowledge of theplane's history).
Plane Page Format and Test Methods
Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisen Model 21 Zero
Mitsubishi A6M3 Reisen Model 32 Zero
Mitsubishi A6M5a Reisen Model 52 Zero
Nakajima Ki-43II Hayabusa Oscar
Next planes to test:
2.01 planes (due to time constraints, I probably won't get tothe Con planes anytime soon)
This section contains charts comparing the different planes indifferent performance areas.
Corner Velocity Times and Radii
Solomons II Plane Comparison Charts
This section contains studies and writeups I have done withWarbirds.
NACA Roll Rates Comparison to WB
WellsSullivan's excellent Warbirds Web page
Author Information:
Name: Jonathan Hoof
Occupation: Programmer and Warbirds Addict
Email Address: hoofj at agora.rdrop.com (replace "at" with @)
Warbirds handle: hoof