Ok, i’ve tested both Ta-152 H-1 and Hornets. Results:
TL;DR: Hornet is not it; Ta-152 is not it for speed, but may well be it for altitude (see Ta-152 H-1 section below for details!)
Details.
Hornet Mk.III (and Mk.I all the same): 768 km/h at 6000m, max alt 13083 m
Both hornets (regular and premium) have idential stat cards, and seem to perform the same in test flight, too. Hornet’s stat card top speed (756 km/h at 5791m) - is a bit too low: i was able to exceed 760 km/h, in one case going 768 km/h at 6000m, level flight. But this still doesn’t make it a 800+ km/h prop, which is required to even be a contender, in this topic.
Hornet’s stat card’s max alt of 11500 m - is one pretty big understatement, as i was able to climb to 13083 m, in test flight with minimum load of limited fuel, and maintain level flight at this altitude. While itself very impressive for a prop, this max altitude is nowhere near what Ta-152 H-1 does, though.
Overall, Hornet’s performance quickly deteriorates above 10 km: top speed quickly goes down, and angle of attack needed to maintain level flight - increases rapidly. Above 12 km, going with some 5° angle of attack just to maintain level flight not far from its top speed at this alt - is what Hornet does. This indicates insufficient lift from Hornet’s wings to maintain its mass, through the thin air. It’s just not shaped for high altitude flying, for sure.
Ta-152 H-1: 781 km/h at 13388 m, max alt 15938 m
its stat card top speed (751 km/h at 10200 m) - i wasn’t quite able to get, going “only” 736 km/h at 10400 m. However, i also found it goes 781 km/h at 13388 m. Which by itself is VERY fast, but still a tad not enough to get over 800 km/h. At still higher altitudes, its top speed begins to deteriorate quickly.
Its stat card max altitude, while itself outstanding - 14800 m - is still a big understatement, though! With minimum load of finite fuel in test flight, i ended up flying level and slowly gaining speed at no less than 15938 m! This definitely makes Ta-152 a serios contender for highest-flying prop in the game. But, for now, only a contender; i recently piloted another prop at 16105 m in stable level flight, so it remains to be seen if Ta-152 can beat that.
Of note, however, is Ta-152 H-1’s climb rate above 10 km: it’s horrendous. It can get that high, but it gets there slowly, and only with careful continuous MEC managing: auto prop pitch badly overheats, so can’t be used, and manual prop pitch requires frequent adjustments to control oil temperatures (there ain’t no oil radiator on it) and torque: you either fail to get enough engine power to climb, or you overheat while climbing, being forced to reduced power, which makes you unable to climb. Worse, much of above-10-km climb requires going without WEP, too - and that, of course, slows the climb rate as well. This horror continues up to ~13.5 km altitude, above which air becomes so cold that auto prop pitch and continuous WEP can both be enabled without overheating.
So, Ta-152 H-1 may well end up the absolute altitude record holder among all WT prop aircraft, but only “for sport”; in actual battles, there ain’t any use for its stratospheric capability. Both RB and SB, in-game, are simply too short and too small map area, for such shenanigans.
I plan to do some longer tests for Ta-152 H-1 later on, and find out if it’s really the highest-going prop. Already checked C-3 variant, too, and it properly gets stuck at about 14 km; it features way less “stratosphere-friendly” wing, and indeed not expected to go nearly as high as H-1 can. Meanwhile, if any of you guys have any other ideas - both fastest and highest-climber aircraft - please share. This gets interesting. :)
P.S. All the bold numbers above for Hornets and Ta-152 H-1, i have screenshots for, but it’s all preliminary, so i will only post those if someone asks me to. Those speeds and altitudes may still be a bit lower than achievable, but should be pretty close to these aircraft’s limits.
