Chris:
You're right about top speeds. Airframe condition can play a big role as
well. No doubt, the military (either US Air Force or RAF) did tests and
the results no doubt came from a particular test. During the war the RAF
did evaluations of both allied and captured aircraft. These tests are
public and some have been reproduced in various books on the Spitfire
(this I do know).
That being said, the P-51Ds are usually quoted in that speed range
(430s). The fastest of the operational Spitfires, the PR XIXs with
Griffons, could do 450 or so at high altitude. The best of the Merlin
Spits were a little over 400 at high altitude. The Spits always needed
more powerful engines than Mustangs to reach similar speeds. One reason
the Spits were not competitive against the Mustang in air racing.
Note that I have not qualified the speeds as ground speed or air speed
because i) I don't have that info and ii) I get confused with them.
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Chris Barker
Sent: March 9, 2007 16:13
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] Re: OT Mustang
By coincidence, one came through RAF Wyton today, Chuck: a Spitfire I
mean. It sounded lovely, but we reckoned that he was treating the
engine carefully and had it throttled a fair way back. But the shape is
lovely to see as well as to hear the engine.
These "maximum speeds" mean very little. Even if you assume a standard
atmosphere for the temperature and pressure at the height mentioned,
each aircraft and engine will have different characteristics - and I am
very suspicious of seemingly exact numbers like that. They are only
really useful for young (and old :-)) boys to compare when playing
games.
437mph could of course be the maximum allowable air speed, but that
doesn't sound likely either.
Chris
~~ >-)-
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
+44 (0)7092 251126
www.threeshoes.net
homepage.mac.com/zuiko
On 9 Mar 2007, at 12:46, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> Sounds wonderful on my big 14" woofers. I've never heard a Spitfire
> and have wondered how much they sound the same with the same engine.
> Although I've never heard a Spitfire I have spent a fair amount of
> time working at IBM's Hursley House (near Winchester, England) where
> the Spitfire was developed. The building has lots of Spitfire
> memorabilia.
>
> Wikipedia says 437 mph at 25,000 feet for the Mustang.
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-51_Mustang>
>
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