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[Wing Walker]

So I'm making a mission on the La Chute map, that is about a 1:1 scale, for the P-47C escorting.

I found some good statistics for the P-47C...

The gallons of fuel not drop tank should be 305gallons.

The fuel time seems to be way off, for instance going from England to Berlin with no drop tank you can make it to Berlin and about all the way back to the middle of the English Channel before the #1 plane runs out of fuel.

I'm starting it from the "Memphis Belle" air base and the combat range should be right at about Amsterdam, no drop tank.

This is also true for other a/c without drop tank.

[Frankiek]

I am not really sure that la chute is 1:1 scale

[sercrets]

I am not really sure that la chute is 1:1 scale

I am pretty sure it is... However that would need to be measured...

cheers,

sercrets

[Dimlee]

I just made some quick flights on the La Chute map (BAT JTW) between the points in the UK and the Netherlands. Yes, it looks as if the scale is 1:1 or very close to it.

[Wing Walker]

I measured it,

You just look up the distance between London and Berlin, or whatever distance of 2 known real life points, and then set the UFO's speed to that number, and measure it out to 1hr flight time.

Distance between London and Berlin is 932Km, or 579Miles.  Set the UFO's speed to 932Kmh, city center to city center is 1hr flight time.

Wish there was a just a "measuring aircraft" that could go down to 1kmh and up to infinity...  or just a measuring tool.

I spend so much time making full scale missions with real statistics I always measure out a map before I start to find the most real.

Wish all 1:1 maps were marked as so.  Italy is another you have to find the right one.

[Wing Walker]

ANYHOO...

The combat range is figured as:
 
- 5mins of fuel for warm up and take off...
- climb to 25,000ft
- 5 mins at combat power
- 15 mins at military power
- return at 25,000ft
- cruise at 25,000ft (about 231Mph)
- fuel reserve of 30mins at cruise power

For the P-47C the combat range is only 274Km (@25,000ft) without drop tanks, though 321Km@10,000Ft... 

W/ drop tanks is a little mercky stats keep wanting to quote the 200Gal tank that seems to be just for ferrying.  I had to do some estimation with numbers and fuel rates:

Estimated the 75Gal drop tank would give a combat range of about 365Km ( a little ways past Amsterdam from Bassingbourn the "Memphis Belle" airfield) 

In BAT without drop tanks... the P-47C is flying all the way to Berlin, then  back and running out of fuel in the middle of the English channel almost making it home.  (no combat just flying)

Also, I've noticed this for most other aircraft types, but the P-40M seemed to be the most accurate, but didn't look up the stats.

 

[Korrigan]

Wish there was a just a "measuring aircraft" that could go down to 1kmh and up to infinity...  or just a measuring tool.

You can calculate de distances with the waypoints coordinates from the .mis files.

[Wing Walker]

Am I an airplane nerd if this blows my mind?

So, I just read a military document that touches on this with the P-47...
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA194274.pdf

APPARENTLY...

The P-47 never had a combat worthy drop tanks developed until about March of 1944!

Which means early ranges for the P-47C were WITHOUT DROP TANKS.  Which explains some conflicting info I've been reading with some sources mentioning the 200gal ferry tank.

Which means, in BAT, that the P-47D-22 and before should not have drop tanks available in loadouts.

I mean you could have D-10's and D-22's that stuck around into early 1944 but I think at least the P-47C and before should probably not have drop tanks.

[Dimlee]

"Brisbane tank" was used in 1943 - in the Pacific.

The paper tank in ETO was tested in the summer of 1943, probably. I don't remember when it was accepted in the service.
There are several videos about tanks for P-47 on @GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles on Youtube.

[WxTech]

Map distances can be read from the grid in the FMB. You may need to zoom out a bit until a grid line label is seen, then zoom in while counting grid lines. Get the X and Y values for the two points of interest.

Or one could place a unique object at two spots, look in the .mus file for their X/Y coordinates (which can me divided by 1000 to convert to km), then calculate the distance as:

Distance = SQRT((x1 - x2)^2 + (y1 - y2)^2)

In plain language:
- Find the difference between the two X values, then square it.
- Do the same for the Y values.
- Add these two squared values, then take the square root.

If the two points are reasonably close to being on an E-W or N-S line, then the distance is pretty close to the E-W or N-S separation alone. This suffices when the angle departs from orthogonality by no more than about 10 degrees, or 15 if you are less stringent. 

Note that our maps, if based on real DEM data, might be on a Mercator or other rectangular projection. If the map covers a large area, and if the latitude is well removed from the equator, there will be distortions that result in a varying scale, more so in the N-S direction. For instance in the northern part of a N hemisphere map real world distances will be smaller than the map indicates. Conversely, in the southern part real distances will be greater than the map suggests. On top of that, direction is warped as well, where the best projection would have lines of longitude converging toward the pole but here are 'warped' into being parallel.

[Dimlee]

I created the mission Martlesham Heath - Berlin - Martlesham Heath.
P-38J, P-51C-NT, P-47D-10, P-47C-5.
100% fuel, no drop tanks. Settings: all switches on in Flight Model and Weapons and Stores.
The main part of the flight was at 9,000m and IAS 280 km/h.
All aircraft returned to the base. 

[Wing Walker]

I pretty much made the same flight path as in your image for all my testing.  Also, did the multi plane "race" range test, the F4F also flew all the way.

My testing was all at 25,000ft, which was less range than the max at 10,000ft (in real life).   

With warm up, taxi, and taking off (2% fuel) from Wattersham airfield, your combat range going towards Berlin reaches to the BM.5 vertical line, right at @ Woerden.

The max range where you run out with 30mins fuel left that is 19% ( one of the standards for max range) reaches to right at the DC-DD vertical line, or at Oscherslieben (I think it says)

Then your engine runs out and quits at almost the same DC-DD line, but on the way back from Berlin.


I figured out that the P-47C here in BAT needs to be set to 71% fuel load to be the real range it would of had in real life.

It amazes me that they didn't develop a combat worthy droptank for so long, could have changed the war.

Fun test piloting all this and researching stats.