Interesting subject and always good for a debate!
As an occasional poster on the old WIX forums & a 'Lurker' here, I thought it's about time I made my first post!
As someone who has an interest in doing flight models for MS Flight Simulator, this stuff is always useful and interesting to me!
It would be nice to have known the exact marks & models used in the test but it at least gives us an idea of just how good at rolling they were and it would also be intersting to see if there is any data around that shows the roll rates at lower altitudes. Btw, the chart says (at the bottom) that the stick force applied during tests was 50lbs.
Whilst the boosted aileron P-38 is reputed to have had the best roll rate of any fighter of WWII, the data I've seen tends to suggest otherwise. I have a copy of an original Lockheed roll rate graph for a P38L with the boosted ailerons and it's max roll rate is shown as 98 DPS 450 MPH @ 10000ft.
I also have one which shows it up against a P38J-10 with non boosted ones (plus a P51B & FW190 - looks to be the same data as the NACA graph) and it's max roll rate was recorded as 72 DPS @ 290 MPH. Although this graph doesn't mention the heights of the tests (or stick forces), it's assumed to at 10000ft as the data for the L matches that of the original Lockheed document.
The Corsair did indeed have a very good roll rate and the later versions with the servo tabs were very light indeed and there was infact a limit to full aileron deflection imposed at 300kts. As one modern Warbird pilot said in an article on flying the Corsair, "On most aircraft, you'd be lucky to get on ANY aileron at this speed let alone go to to the stops"!
One very good source for this kind of data is the excellent book 'Americas' Hundred Thousand' by Francis H. Dean and for the Corsair, it shows the highest rate as 90 DPS @ 290 MPH (IAS) for an F4U-1D/FG1-D, although the graph stops here so it may well have been higher!
Another aircraft that excelled in this area was the P40. Ray Hanna says it's has lovely ailerons and a good roll rate to match, and this seems to have been the same view as most wartime pilots too. AMHT shows roll rate data for an early model P40 (H81) peaking at 135 DPS @ 360 MPH (IAS) whilst interestingly, the data for the P40F (as seen in the NACA Graph) is much lower - 95 DPS @ 300 MPH (IAS)!
Another aircraft that was supposedly a good rolling one was the Yak3/9 series. Whilst I don't have any data on their rolling capablities, the calculated roll rates for the Flight Models I've done seem to back this.
I wonder if anyone on this forum has this data?
Cheers
Paul
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Or could that be with a loadout? Just thinking about the quote from Guytons book saying over 180 DPS and that quote above saying FW190 and F4U were about equal. That GIF on the other page and quote above would mean that F4U would roll at least 160 DPS. Could I bother you guys to check this for me, that Americas onhundred thousand is about 80€, if you are lucky enough to get one.
