it very much is. That’s litterally one of the main characteristics of a delta. At low speed, high AoA, it acts as an airbrake…
As for stall speed : Community Bug Reporting System
You were in this bug report yourself, so 100 knots for horizontal flight as Smin said. If the plane is climbing, it can be even slower (40 knots according to the source used in the report). F18A and F16C are stated to be around 130 knots and around 130 - 200 knots respectively, from what i could find (sources are really vague for the f16).
To summerize, a f18 will fall out of the sky if it tries going slower than a mirage. Simple as that.
As for ratefight, f18 is better, but it doesn’t really matter because 2 circles isn’t meta anyway, and it will become even more true when more advanced missiles are added. What you want is point the nose quick and get a missile off. Ratefighting is just a way to get killed : it means you have to position yourself well, which takes time, and time is important in a dogfight, because the longer it lasts, the higher the chances of getting third partied. Not to mention a slight mistake means you have to restart it all.
It works well with slow aircraft with poor missiles, but it won’t last in the future.
I was actually referencing the F/A-18A NATOPS. Stall speed is approximately ~70 knots at critical AoA (not vertical). It can and will maneuver better at low speed than the Mirage 2000.
F/A-18 can maintain a steady 35-40° AoA, Mirage 2000 is maximally limited to ~32°… The F/A-18 will dominate a Mirage 2000.
And as I said, the F/A-18 just gets better engines and performance as later models are introduced… (not discussing the Super)
not like the thrust to weight is impressive in the first place…
which doesn’t really matter, since just like for the mirage and its 40 knots stall speed, it will probably get limited by gaijin’s instructor (also 40 knots is inferior to 70)
got a source on the 70 knots btw ?
look up a1-f18ac-nfm-200 on google, page 748. Section 11 page 21. at 25k lbs GW(empty), stall speed is 68kt at max thrust(level flight sea level), eagle same condition empty has a stall speed of 51kt. Is it better?
Dude literally made a comment before saying that the F-18 has a better T/W ratio than the Mig-29 depending on the loadout, and now you’re also trying to say that 40 knots stall speed is worse than Mirage’s 70 when you were arguing the Mirage’s stall speed is much lower? LMAO
It is indeed pretty bonkers, unfortunately it doesn’t break into those kinds of specifics. I’m sure some F-18 enthusiasts can show us fairly standard F-18 configs from around 1987~. But at the very least we know its not clean which is impressive.
1987? probably 2 sidewinder 2 sparrow I think thats standard CAP loadout, since other standard CAP loadouts of the hornet later on are 60% fuel with 2 sidewinder 2 amraams +3 bags but id imagine no bags are present here
btw a while back you showed an F-15 one but I dont think you mentioned the conditions given for it, would be nice to know to confirm accuracy for american aircraft in that manual
I don’t have access to a 748 page document by googling this. Only a 408 one. If you have a direct link it would be easier.
Only had access to a document titled :
“NATOPS FLIGHT MANUAL PERFORMANCE DATA NAVY MODEL F/A-18E/F 165533 AND UP AIRCRAFT”, which possesses a chart with a stalling speed as low as 110 knots (Figure 2-11)
If you have a direct link, i’d be more than happy to take a look at it.
Make sure to not link a doc restricted for export or something though X)
a1-f18ac-nfm-200 on pdfcoffee, put these 2 words on bing, yandex, google. Can’t link bc someone will have a meltdown and throw a tantrum. should be a 1076pg doc
