Others know much more than me about this... however a couple of brief points may be relevant.
- Spit has large and draggy rads. Rad size was upgraded from the V to the IX (although only one side is actually rad on later spits. P51 under certain rad settings had lowest drag rad of all.....
- nothing for free? Spit has draggy large rad and is quite resistant to overheat. Also slower than P51 which is heavier and larger with the same motor. So maybe spit designers simply accepted compromise (high drag) in favor of good cooling...? Remember all motors can be cooled under full power settings, when they don't it is (usually) a design choice. Well, aircooled may be a touch different... however for liquid cooled you can always cool them if you want to.
nit pickin gkll.Also slower than P51 which is heavier and larger with the same motor.
Yup, the P-51 had a 2" greater wing span. Length was 14" greater.![]()
Both rad positions on the later Spits held an engine coolant rad. On one side was also the intercooler while the other side had the oil cooler.although only one side is actually rad on later spits
Luftluuver said:
Both rad positions on the later Spits held an engine coolant rad. On one side was also the intercooler while the other side had the oil cooler
Thanks for this. I assumed rads both sides and got corrected a year or so ago, this makes more sense.
And Greymouser there is a distinct possibility that many planes are off... but?
It is a fact that you can cool any motor if you want to. Look at that crazy Blohm and Voss high altitude 109 mod. BV155? Anyways the thing has absolutely enormous rads, at 52,000 feet you can't get enough air to cool..... point is this plane is an extreme case of a ship compromised to ensure proper cooling. So you can always do this, for any set of flight conditions. Leads me to think that either Oleg is wrong, or, a lot of designers intentionally underdesigned the cooling systems to get better aero and top end.
Some here might know about design philosophies of the various teams that designed the planes we are using.... what was the deal on cooling vs drag?