Nations:
USA - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Germany - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
USSR - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
British - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Japan - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Italy - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Jets - All Nations (6.0 - 9.3) - Air RB - Performance Guide:
Jets - All Nations (6.0 - 9.3) - Air RB - Performance Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Air RB - Map Temperature Guide:
Air RB - Map Temperature Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Air RB - Game Mechanics Guide:
Air RB - Game Mechanics Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Manual Engine Control / MEC - Guide:
Manual Engine Control / MEC - Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Air RB Performance Guide - Master Thread:
Air RB Performance Guide - Master Thread: - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
The War thunder wiki link below seems outdated, inaccurate and very much lacking in accurate information as to why their planes are overheating and melting the engines.
Thermodynamics – Engine, Weather and more - War Thunder Wiki
The following is directly from the wiki regarding operation time per overheat colour and seems mostly accurate regarding Overheat wear, except orange overheat time, during testing it was found that orange overheat was almost always (3min) and in a few planes less:
"The remaining time of operation is shown by the colour of the temperature indicator: "
White: Engine is operating normally,
Yellow: 5 to 10 minutes,
Orange: 2 to 5 minutes,
Red: less than 2 minutes,
Flashing red: less than 1 minute”.
*Overheat wear:
This is wear on the engine from duration in yellow, orange or red overheat. This is the obvious overheat mechanic in the game. When in an overheat for the set amount of time at a given temp, lets say yellow for this example reaches 5-10min, the color will drop to the next color orange for 2 to 5min, then Red for less than 2min. When combining yellow and orange together some planes can “Stack” overheats together to fly for 7 to 15min in overheat before having to do a power cycle to heal/recover the engine.
*Overheat wear color thresholds:
*When in a color of overheat, it doesn’t seem to matter if you are at the minimum or maximum for that threshold. For example: Lets say a plane has a yellow overheat between 90-100°C and then goes to orange at 101°C. If you get 10:00min of flight time in yellow it will be the same for 90°C and 100°C as long as you don’t go into the orange at 101°C.
*Overheat wear healing/recovery:
*Generally, planes do not recover from overheat as the wiki suggests from simply running the engine in the white.
*To heal/recover an engine from overheat wear, turning the engine off, in the white for 30sec then restarting, is effective at removing overheat wear (per color). This has been the most reliable and efficient way to “heal” an engine from overheat wear found so far.
*Overheat wear healing/recovery (MEC specific settings):
Using MEC gives a more effective & predictable overheat recovery since the radiator stays at known open setting. In the performance guide description of planes there is now a overheat healing/recovery time and details under each plane where applicable. It will state:
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How many seconds the engine needs to be off and in the white to heal. This will also state if the healing/recovery time will heal (per color) overheat color or (all) overheat colors.
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Per color: This means if yellow and orange are stacked and healing/recovery time is 30sec, the engine will need 30sec for each overheat color duration, effectively doubling the time to heal the engine for 60sec total.
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All: This means if the healing/recovery time is 30sec, and it heals both yellow and orange stacked.
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Duration of overheat in each overheat color, duration after on/off power cycle, and duration if stacking yellow and orange overheat together. Some planes might have less duration in an overheat color after on/off power cycle and it might be less if stacked. These times are noted in the guide.
*Time wear:
This is wear based on time, regardless of overheat or not, by simply running the engine that usually suddenly drops the overheat threshold of the engine by a set number. For many planes that time wear drop occurs at approx (16min) into the Air RB round. This is separate from overheat wear. In the Air RB performance guide Time wear will be written as such:
For sudden drops right at the time mark: (-11/-11°C) @ 16min
For gradual drops over the duration of time: (-11/-11°C) / 16min
*Time wear healing/recovery:
To delay or reset, usually 2 to 3min, the onset of time wear is by performing the designated time for each plane on/off power cycle for engine healing/recovery. There a few planes that don’t suffer from time wear or completely recover and they are noted in the guide.
– Airspeed:
I’ve generally found that 280kph is where most planes can be cooled without an exponential increase in radiator, in short, 280Kph ended up being a general “sweet spot” for climb/cooling. It’s also where drag is minimal and cooling is rather effective especially in sustained climbs. In many cases when AEC gets overwhelmed cooling a plane traveling under 280kph often times it can stay cool if traveling 300-330kph instead, this is equally applicable to both AEC and MEC once again.
Japanese planes are a unique exception in that those planes cooling is mostly unaffected by airspeed and actually get slightly warmer with acceleration such as a sustained high-speed dive. There are a handful of others that have this characteristic and it is a rather obvious phenomenon when you see it.
– Maps:
This is the most impactful variable to performance in the game. The reasons for this are it not only affects your plane but the enemy plane also. This will determine Top speed, WEP duration before engine damage, radiator settings and just about every other performance aspect equally applicable to both AEC and MEC. Some planes are much more affected by air temperature than others.
There are 3 environmental temperatures in game. Cold, Moderate and Hot. One easy way to identify the temperature is if there is snow on the ground its Cold, green vegetation its Moderate and if the ground is Sand or desert its Hot. (A few maps can look one way but actually be another temperature)
The map temperature chart is color coded. Light blue for cold, green for moderate and orange for hot. Linked here: Air RB - Map Temperature Guide - Game Discussion / Realistic Battle - War Thunder — official forum
Map air temperature does not change as you climb, its actually the horsepower of the engine increasing or decreasing changing the temperature. See hp drop chart below and you’ll notice that aircraft engine temperatures drop at the exact same altitude. Engine temperatures also drop just before super charger shifts up, and then engine temperatures rise again after the shift. This applies to both AEC and MEC.
– Horsepower drop off (hp drop):
For lack of a better term, this is the altitude where there is a sharp drop in horsepower generated by the engine. Going 500m above this generally results in a significant drop in performance that is similar to lowering throttle by 15%. Most pilots won’t notice the drop in performance until about 1000m above this which is even worse. As an example, it’s pretty obvious that a Yak3 with a hp drop off of 3100m flying at 4000m is not going to be nearly as much of a threat. This is applicable to both AEC and MEC. See example chart below:
