Typical Naval Aircraft Specifications

[oldpop2000]

Just some more information that I don't believe that the game might be able to include. Combat radius includes the following data:


Warm-up and idle time which for a radial is 20 minutes.


Take-off time is about 1 min.


Rendezvous with the air wing is 10 min. at 60% normal sea level power or NSP


Climb to altitude; 15,000 at 60%.

Cruise out at 60%


Rendezvous, landing and reserve is 60 min.


Bombing radius would calculated at a percentage of maximum range in a particular configuration. For a TBF that would be 1180 NMI as a bomber, with a bombing radius of 20%. Combat radius is then 236 miles


Note that the rendezvous, landing and reserve means after the attack, the lat-long designated point for all air wing aircraft to arrive at, before heading back to the carrier.  

[garrisonchisholm]

Excellent Pops. What do you think Ferry range would be, light-load x2, or would they load it down with fuel and so it would be med-rng x2?

That question isn't for anything Fredrik is working on, its for something I am working on. :]

[oldpop2000]

Jan 6, 2020 15:49:20 GMT -6 garrisonchisholm said:

Excellent Pops. What do you think Ferry range would be, light-load x2, or would they load it down with fuel and so it would be med-rng x2?

That question isn't for anything Fredrik is working on, its for something I am working on. :]

The ferry is the maximum range with all internal and external fuel tanks, no armor, weapons or ordnance. It's a one way trip. If you can calculate the fuel usage in lbs. per hour per horsepower, you should be able to use the total fuel capacity and that should help you to calculate the maximum range which is very close to ferry range. In ferry range, you don't climb out fast or very high. You stay low and just fly at the lowest manifold pressure, say 40 percent fuel usage per hour and calculate the lowest speed necessary to keep the bird in the air. All these can help to get close. From this, you can see what the pilots had to go through before the flights.

[oldpop2000]

I am, over the coming weeks, going to try to find detailed flight and performance data for German, British, Japanese and Italian aircraft for the same information. However, remember that land based aircraft have it much easier. No problem, I will keep looking. I have some for fighters. Here is the link I would use, it does not have Italian.

 wwiiaircraftperformance.org/

[oldpop2000]

f6f-5-compressed.pdf (196.73 KB)

I am uploading a PDF of the specifications for the F6F-5. I am doing this because at the bottom of the document under notes is a section on fighter combat radius formula based on warm-up, rendezvous, climb, cruise-out drop tanks and bombs, combat cruiser-back and reserve. I thought this might be interesting for the gamers.

[oldpop2000]

sb2c-5_compressed.pdf (357.82 KB)

Here is another PDF on the SB2C-5 Helldiver. It has the same formulas for it at the bottom.

[aeson]

Jan 6, 2020 15:49:20 GMT -6 garrisonchisholm said:

Excellent Pops. What do you think Ferry range would be, light-load x2, or would they load it down with fuel and so it would be med-rng x2?

As a rough estimate, I would suggest that the combat radius would most likely be about one-third of the ferry or maximum range. As to which of the three ranges that the game gives is the most appropriate combat radius, I would suggest using the range for the 'normal' mission load for the aircraft type - light for fighters, medium or heavy for bombers.

[oldpop2000]

Some representative numbers from a dive bomber, torpedo bomber and a fighter.

For the SBD-5, ferry range is 1680 miles, combat radius as a scout is 305 miles. That's about 18%
.
Combat radius with two external tanks is 400 miles. That's 24 %

For the TBF, ferry range is 2685 miles. Combat radius is 235 miles. That is .08 miles.

For the F6F Hellcat, maximum range which generally is close to the ferry range, is 1530 miles. Combat radius can be either 950 miles or 340 miles. First number is 62% while the second number is 22%.

Now, if you are a clever pilot, you can play with the fuel mixture and lean it out, gaining range. This is how the Japanese Zero's flew from Formosa to the northern Philippines to cover the bombers. They practiced this to eliminate the need for carriers. Charles Lindbergh came to the SW Pacific and taught this same procedure to the P-38 pilots. Might be something to add into the game. 

[seawolf]

Whats the conversion between in game range and speed versus miles/kilometers or mph/knots

[aeson]

Jan 7, 2020 14:43:58 GMT -6 seawolf said:

Whats the conversion between in game range and speed versus miles/kilometers or mph/knots

Ranges are in nautical miles, speeds are in knots.

[seawolf]

Jan 7, 2020 14:55:50 GMT -6 aeson said:

Jan 7, 2020 14:43:58 GMT -6 seawolf said:

Whats the conversion between in game range and speed versus miles/kilometers or mph/knots

Ranges are in nautical miles, speeds are in knots.

Been a long time but can you confirm if range is to target or round trip?

[aeson]

May 12, 2020 23:18:54 GMT -6 seawolf said:

Jan 7, 2020 14:55:50 GMT -6 aeson said:

Ranges are in nautical miles, speeds are in knots.

Been a long time but can you confirm if range is to target or round trip?

It's range to target, or combat radius, if you prefer.