What is your opinion on this article?// it seems to show that one has to be very careful in comparing two opposing fighters. Kurfürst - Articles - Notes for "Spitfire Mk XIV versus Me 109 G/K A Performance Comparison"
about his point on how long it took to get the XIV into squadron service for one. I'm thinking the XIV first flew in mid-1943 but then it took from 1/44 to 4/44 to get one squadron up & flying or at least that's my reading of it. The author also brought up gun pods slowing the 109's down but didn't the XIV also have wing racks and wouldn't that slow it down just a tad??? His points about the different wieghts on different loadouts is well taken.
You just won't have it that the Spitfire Mk 14 is better than a Me 109 G will you . For the one the Spitfire Mk14 was used as a fighter so would not need racks to carry cannons as they were built into the wing If your going to add the Me 109 -K as a comparison against a Spitfire then it should be a Spitfire MK21 witch saw service at the end of the war at the same time
Oh I don't have a problem with considering the XIV being superior to the 109G/K . My comment about wing racks was that I thought that maybe the XIV carried them for carrying drop tanks to extend it's range but wasn't for sure it they were ever fitted or not. My point was that if one takes into account the weapons pods slowed the '109 down then is it only fair to consider that wing racks would also slow down the XIV? If they were fitted that is. IMHO the author of said article can't cry about including weapons pods onto the '109 which thereby slows it down but then doesn't take into account that an opposing aircraft too may have racks slowing it down.
to make a fair comparison if you were testing a Spitfire with drop tanks then you would test the other planes with tanks as well You moaning because the author take into account that Me 109G standard cannons were under pods but that how they were In 1944/45 I would doubt if the Spitfire would be carrying tanks as they were moving airfields all the time to keep up with battle + Everyone know if a plane is carrying drop tanks & enter battle then it drops the drop tanks but the Me 109 could not drop it gun pods Like I said before the Spitfire Mk14 did not carry cannons under it wings but in it wings so that is a fair comparison with a me 109-g
Found this interesting reading Conditions in Germany during the last year of the war, however, were not conducive to aircraft achieving maximum theoretical performance levels. Hans Knickrehm of I/JG 3 recalled the condition of new Me 109 G-14/AS’s received by his group in October, 1944: The machines that were delivered were technically obsolete and of considerably lowered quality. The engines proved prone to trouble after much too short a time, because the factories had had to sharply curtail test runs for lack of fuel. The surface finish of the outer skin also left much to be desired. The sprayed-on camouflage finish was rough and uneven. The result was a further reduction in speed. We often discovered clear cases of sabotage during our acceptance checks. Cables or wires were not secured, were improperly attached, scratched or had even been visibly cut. [SIZE=-1]1[/SIZE] It didn’t help matters that ground crews, who might have ameliorated these problems to some degree, were being transferred to the infantry in significant numbers. The primitive conditions existing at Luftwaffe airfields was an additional complication. Bombing and strafing attacks further taxed the ground crew's ability to maintain the aircraft anywhere near the degree necessary to even approach theoretical performance levels.
I don't think any Spitfires used wing drop tanks operationally. Certainly not the XIV. Drop tanks were commonly carried under the fuselage, of 30, 45, 50 or 90 gallons. There was a 170 gallon tank but that was rarely used. They certainly didn't give the Spitfire XIV a high priority, but that's because a: they were happy with the Spitfire IX, and b: the Luftwaffe was a small airforce fighting not just the RAF but the USAAF and Soviets as well.
