That’s max speed wisla the harrier doesn’t actually have airspeed limits.
The level flight envelope in the av-8a manual is for max thrust setting or 16,000 lbs the Pegasus can make 19,000 lbs + in normal lift setting. Therefore the aircraft can actually accelerate past the envelope given in the manual to the 625 listed.
In the Gr1 pilots notes it clearly states there is no IAS limit so in game you should be able to put it in a vertical dive from max altitude and not even worry about it breaking.
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I’ve bug reported lots of harrier issues they don’t get fixed.
You posted documentation showing IAS limits of the engine.
As for thrust:
16458 / 2.20462 = 7465kgf.
13197 / 2.20462 = 5986kgf.
Spoiler
9218 x 2.20462 = 20,322lbf.
Engine thrust is either correct or over-performing, either way it’s not under-performing.
It showed 1g flight envelope and was also done in 1968 the harrier 1 is a transonic fighter and like the hunter should be able to slip in and out of supersonic speeds easily with just shallow dives.
I have also reported on the thrust of the Pegasus the mk101 and 401 over perform at low end thrust however the later Pegasus engines underperform in low end thrust.
Nonetheless I want you to measure thrust at .7 Mach at sea level and notice how it drops by about 50% they artificially nerfed the harrier on release by having its thrust decrease with speed yet irl it doesn’t. This means zoom climbs, str, max achievable alt, and acceleration where all falsely nerfed since it entered the game.
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Aircraft have specific speeds for maximum thrust, Harriers are closer to 0 IAS.
F-14B gets to peak thrust around 900IAS.
IRL the Pegasus engine increases thrust with airspeed.
I’ve also gone through the gross thrust chart and calculated in ram drag for various Mach functions and it still results in a net increase in thrust. Even at transonic speeds.
In game we can see it drop off in thrust rapidly. All jet engines make more power with increased free stream velocity.
Gaijin nerfed it like this as they didn’t understand how the performance charts were made.
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As you demonstrated above with 85% throttle or so the Harrier Gr.1 and AV-8A should perform in climb and speed what they do with WEP in game.
As seen here for a clean aircraft with 85% throttle in game the AV-8A should be able to cruise at 40,100 feet and have a combat ceiling of 46,100 feet with 500 FPM climb remaining. Good luck even getting to 40 grand in a harrier.
With missiles and guns retained and with 3,100 lbs of fuel the AV-8A will climb at 16,700 FPM and in game should do that with 85% throttle.
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40,000 feet is easy to do in all Harriers.
Never said it wasn’t Alvis but it will barely do it the highest I’ve ever gotten the Gr.3 was around 42k and that was max achieved to the stall while also using 110% throttle.
With guns and missiles it should get to 43k with 85% throttle.
So how high can you get the AV-8A at 85% throttle with guns and 2 sidewinders retained on the plane?
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That would be with 5000 lbs plus of fuel on the combat air patrol.
When at combat weight with 3,100 lbs fuel remaining it will do the 43k
According to your documentation it should be ~43,100 feet with AIM-9s and 1400kg of fuel, and ~40,800 feet with 2267kg of fuel with AIM-9s.
Both of which are doable in War Thunder currently.
I’ll cite that document later when I do testing.
It needs to do that in level flight and with 500 fpm sep remaining
If you are feeling kind you could also try sustained G at sea level.
The aircraft in this trial was a Gr.3 weighing 15,500 lbs with AIM9s and 2 drop tanks.
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Not even maximum thrust needed.
9144 meters = 30,000 feet.
6096 meters.
The document cites.
Spoiler
It’s definitely within margin of error.
No external fuel tanks to test your G load.
Fair enough on the missile and guns altitude but what altitude can you reach clean.
The highest I got clean in the Gr.1 was 46,230 feet but it took 100% throttle and around 1200 kg of fuel.
When I took it back to 85% throttle the SEP was -400+ fpm. Based off this the ceiling is close enough.
Could you try 14 degrees a second with only guns and gross weight of 7584kg or 16707 lbs
at .7 Mach sea level. This test is doable in game.
Hmm, indeed, it doesn’t accelerate faster than 609 knots. What does gayjin say about this?
Spoiler
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They said they don’t care. They think the 595 knots at sea level was achieved with lift thrust or 20,000 odd lbs but it was actually done with 16,000 lbs. Naturally if you added 4k lbs more thrust it would go faster.
I have a list here of what they can actually do.
Another side note I even gave them a full technical report from the RAC it was accelerometer tests with SEP to determine sustained G and they just said we don’t think its possible to sustain x G. Despite having been provided with one of the direct sources used to make the E-M chart.
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That’s very sad. Maybe @Gunjob can do something about it? That guy seems to love Harriers.
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I’ve asked don’t think he will. The Harriers are missing a lot of SEP as well. With normal lift rating the Gr.3 can match and beat a MiG-21 MF at 25,000 feet and below up to .6 Mach using only its conventional (wing born) flight envelope. Don’t know if you’ve ever been in a dogfight against a MiG-21 in a Harrier but its basically a lamb/wolf situation. Despite it actually being reversed IRL. As a known value we know its STR is only 1 degree less at 250 knots but it has a massive power advantage and the thrust vector. At 500 knots is only 3 degrees a second less.
numbers represent performance 1-10, 1 being out matched 10 being much better.
when the number is 5 both aircraft are equal in performance.
When below 12,000 feet or so and .55 Mach the Harrier is at a 7-10 advantage over the MiG-21 IRL.
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