2 Great Books!!!! Need Info!

[ickysdad]

I have recieved Francis Dean's "America's 100,000" & Yefrim Gordon's & Dmitri KaZhanov's "Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War,Single Engined Fighters".I highly recommend both!
I was surprised to learn all the structural & engine problems that Soviet fighters had.In the Dean book it said late model P-47D's could climb to 10,000' in 3 minutes,not bad for a 7 ton aircraft! I remember a discussion of VK-107 equipped Yak 3's about how many served before the end of the war ,however according to the Gordon-Kazhanov book the VK-107 had severe overheating and bearing problems so much so any length of climb had to be followed by periods of horizontal flight.Well I'm getting carried away,but just wanted to give some indication of both books.
Hey has anybody heard of P-51's being able to exceed 505 MPH in dives? The Dean book says tests were done in July,1944 at Wright Field and those planes exceeded 580+ MPH and puled out of them no problem.I think the Dean book is right,but would like to know how to find the official results of those tests.
The Soviet Fighter book doesn't have any dive speed info for thier fighters,know where I can get some info?
Thanks in advance,
Brian

[BuzzLightyear]

The 505 mph IAS dive speed limit was a placard limit, not an absolute limit. At 505 mph IAS the pilot of a P-51D was into the effects of compressibility. The plane could go faster, signficantly faster, but the effect of compressibility became greater.

So, to answer your question, yes, the P-51D could dive faster than 505 mph IAS.

[BuzzLightyear]

By the way, I'm new. Hi :)

[CAPILATUS]

Hi,BuzzLightyear! Welcome on board!
I read in magazine "Krylia Rodiny" of 1989, famos Russian magazine, don't remember which month that FW190 could achive 550 mph with diving angle only 30 degrees and it was widely used to run away from soviet fighters. Also it was noticed were not tested before so aerodinamicly perfect aircraft.
"Tested pilot documents" 1943-44

[ickysdad]

I remember reading a story told by a Luftwaffe pilot.In it he said that if you came up with the top 10 diving aircraft in WW2 ,7 would probably be American (F4F,P-40, P-38(late models),F4U, F6F, P-47,and P-51) and quite possibly the top 6 spots would be held by the US, and 7 of the top 8.He stated that when the P-51 or P-47 came down in an extended dive there was no getting away from them.I'm going to try & find the reference source,but I do know he fought against the VVS,USAAF,and RAF,but I do doubt he fought against every fighter the US deployed.All in all it was a common theme "Don't dive away from a US fighter!!!!!".

Thanks for the bit on the FW190 dive speed ,I was pretty sure the German fighters outdived the Soviet fighters and knew for certain that the P-47 & P-51 could outdive the '190 &'109.