What are the fastest and highest-climber piston aircraft(s) in the game (RB / SB)?

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OH! I noticed it does have 2x “oil cooling system” parts, NOT sure if they actually work as radiators in the game. IF not, then this might be a bug?! 😨 Are there oil cooling radiator controls in game? Like I mentioned, I know almost nothing about full manual engine controls in WT.

Oil Cooling System #1. This looks like air SHOULD be sucked in and over this part:

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Oil Cooling System #2. I assume this is a reservoir? Would not make sense to be a radiator with it angled like this:

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Not this specific “issue”, but there is a bug report stating that the Ta-152 should be able to WEP for 30 minutes straight: Community Bug Reporting System

OH, and so apparently the H-1’s radiator is wrong (I think the report is talking about the water radiator.) Was fixed/is correct on the C-1. No idea if this might also effect the WEP usage for the H-1: Community Bug Reporting System

More interestingness: Focke-Wulf Ta 152H | Plane-Encyclopedia

“The engine was a 35 liter Jumo 213E inverted V-12. Originally developed from the Jumo 211, which saw heavy use in bombers much earlier in the war, the new Jumo 213 was what most of the Luftwaffe’s hopes were placed on to compete with newer, more powerful Allied engines. It featured a new AJA 180 streamlined annular radiator that supported the oil and engine coolant.”

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P-51H-5NA.
Hornet.

Love the Hornets.

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The P-38K Lightning and F7F-3 Tigercat are also pretty darn good with their climb rates too.

Not sure if they actually can beat the Hornet F. Mk. 1 and 3, though.

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thats not how turboprops work

the exhaust doesnt provide any propulsion because the air is moving too slow as the turbine is not increasing airflow but using it to provide power to the propellers

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"Consequently, the exhaust jet produces about 10% of the total thrust.[7] A higher proportion of the thrust comes from the propeller at low speeds and less at higher speeds.[8] "

10% is still 10%

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Still, calling it hybrid for 5-15% of thrust is not right

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Just an interesting point regarding the ‘hybrid’ reference to the exhaust of the turboprop producing thrust, the water radiator setup of planes (i.e. predominately prop ones) can be made in a way that produces thrust. It’s called the Meredith Effect. The P-51 would be the most well known example probably.
Essentially, cold air coming in, compressing down to a small space, then getting heated by the hot water radiator and creating pressure coming out as thrust. (Or something like that)

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I’ve recently tested F7F-3, and it’s definitely far, far behind some other props in both how high it can climb and how fast it can go. One of largest disappointments, it was: i expected much more from it.

P-38K Lightning, i didn’t test yet, though. Great suggestion, i was thinking about P-38 family myself. Gonna test it. Thanks! :)

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P-51H-5NA, nope, not the one. Often named, and for great reasons, but i recently tested it, it doesn’t go 800+ km/h at any altitude i believe, and certainly can’t go above 17 km.

And it’s definitely not Hornets - i presented test results for Hornets above in this topic, it’s not it either.

Thanks for trying though, appreciate it! :)

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I took BV-155 to a test flight and i was able to climb to some 17.2 km in it. And it’s pretty awesome step climber, too. Struggles above 17.0 km somewhat, but surely can fly level at least few hundreds meters higher than 17.2 km, in a proper attempt. Indeed, it should be the highest alt prop, then?

Maybe not! %)

Just about when i was to start trying to make a definite altitude record-holding flight, i took a look at everything i got “one last time” to make sure i ain’t missing anything, and i found another contender! It easily managed level flight at 17010 m before running out of fuel, DRAMATICALLY exceeding its stat card’s max altitude.

So, it seems there is one little hidden “17 km club” for props, huh. With at least two members - BV-155 and that other prop i found. I wonder if there’s any other prop which belongs to it, then?

And, knowing that lots of people will doubt that any other (than BV-155) prop can go 17+ km, i just uploaded a video of it to WT main sub. As you can see in the video, the cockpit is definitely not BV-155’s cockpit. I wonder if anyone would recognise this aircraft by its cockpit, or any other features. This video - is here: 17010 m - reddit video.

I will investigate further, taking both this new contender and BV-155 to longer high-alt runs. Most likely, i will create and present a video presenting the highest i can climb, but it will take time (at least several days). So for now, i’m still looking for more “17 km club” contenders. Any contestants? :).

P.S. Sadly, good old Ta-152 H-1 thus falls behind, and won’t be crowned the highest-altitude prop of the game. Sigh. Also, that other prop i mentioned before, which i was able to get to 16105 m - also failed to reach 17 km. I tried proper hard for it, but it just can’t get above 16.5 km.

P.P.S. TIL: historically, in real life, October 1938, Caproni Ca.161 managed to climb to 17330 m. And this is STILL STANDING world record for crewed, manned BIPLANE altitude record. WOW!

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Yes, there are. In “Controls” menu, “Full Engine Controls” section, you can set up your buttons for decreasing and increasing oil radiators - separate from your buttons for regular radiators.

Ta-152 H-1 has oil radiators alright, i only meant that on this particular aircraft, you can’t control these oil radiators when using MEC. Regular radiators are controllable, but not oil radiators.

This is aircraft-specific, and not uncommon: quite many aircraft have oil radiators which can’t be controlled, while most aircraft which come with separate oil radiators - allow to control them by above mentioned buttons. I believe it is based on available documentation for each aircraft: some were built with oil radiator controls available to the pilot in the cockpit, some were built with fully automatic oil radiators, and some simply had most basic oil radiators which were always in the same shape / position (not adjustable).

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One more piece of news: last night, i managed to achieve 808 km/h TAS in level flight in a propeller aircraft. Got it recorded, too. And as far as i can tell, literally NOBODY knows about it. %)

I won’t name it rght now; i will reveal it in due time, with a good video. I discovered this bird’s amazing speed last week, and i’m sure it can go even a bit faster, but i still hope for suggestions for any fast-flying props to compete with it.

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Made progress with altitude: 17652 m. Same aircraft i posted a video of, above. And i’m sure i’ll manage to get it even a bit higher.

And this is not BV-155. I’ll test BV-155 more, but for now i have the impression that BV-155 will fail to beat this, as it already struggles to get to 17.3 km. Edits: adding a screenshot.

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Alright, i’ve set a new record for highest prop altitude: 17835 m. This is from my BV-155 tests, it is more than i expected it can do, and i think it’s the real limit of this aircraft. Because, as you can see in the short video in this post, it manages to maintain level flight without losing speed, at this altitude, but is practically unable to gain speed, too: takes a minute to get from 475 to 478 km/h in level flight.

P.S. I think i’ll beat this with the other high climber i discovered. Hopefully it’ll climb to over 18 km. If i’ll manage that, i’ll upload a video of it, too, but it won’t happen earlier than the end of this week.

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And i finally made a proper run for top speed. New personal best, and probably the fastest prop ever piloted when straight and level, by anyone in the game, during all 12+ years of its existance.

826 km/h! o.O

And i got it recorded live. Little teaser follows. Full recording, i hope to post next week, after i compress and find some good music for it. So now, in this topic, i am only interested in any propeller aircraft which can go faster than 826 km/h, straight and level. Alas, i very much doubt there is any. %)

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Why do you have to turn this into a damn mystery box man.

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Because i want to properly present them, and it takes some time. During which time, why not let others have a little riddle?

No worries, i will present both top speed and top altitude ones - properly. Just did it for the latter: the aircraft is Ki-94-II, an event vehicle from S.U.M.M.E.R. 2017 event. And i managed to bring it to level flight at

18,125 meters. %)

Further details (in the 1st large comment), and full video of it (with added music, Ki-94-II tech tree spot and stat card, climbing from 16sh to 18,125 m, and landing) - are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/1qt5twz/18125_meters_new_altitude_record_for_propeller/ .

And here’s a short low-quality part of it, flying that high:

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That thing probably just has a faulty FM that never got addressed cause nobody ever tried to fly it that high or report it. I’m 100% sure that thing should not be able to fly that high…
How much horsepower does it make up there?

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Yep that power curve is absolutely busted, no real engine behaves this way.

I am also unable to replicate your climb, the plane just wont pull up or accelerate to a point where it can at 17700m already no matter what you do, so i don’t understand how you can possibly exceed that altitude.

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You are unable to replicate for two possible reasons: you’re either not playing on the same map (temperature - matters, colder maps = a bit thicker air = slightly higher altitude reachable, note which test flight map i was using in the video and use the same), or you’re not piloting well enough (there are some minute very fine details to the art of high climbing, be it prop or jet). Some of them are explained in the 1st comment to the reddit video about it, linked above - some others are not. You do it well enough, you’ll replicate it alright.

As for “real engines”, mind you, as i already mentioned in this topic, shameless self-quote: “TIL: historically, in real life, October 1938, Caproni Ca.161 managed to climb to 17330 m. And this is STILL STANDING world record for crewed, manned BIPLANE altitude record.” A freaking biplane, in freaking 1938, made it to 17+ km. If you’re trying to say that a 1943-design high-altitude interceptor with a monster piston engine couldn’t go less than 1 km higher, because “no real engine behaves this way” - i would have a hard time believing you.

And also, i believe that this Ki-94-II’s engine, Nakajima Ha 44 Model 12 Ru, comes with fuel injection plus a hybrid turbo-supercharger with an engine-mounted cooling fan. Pretty advanced stuff for its time. By the way, i was using 1st supercharger gear, not 2nd as you’d expect, which i find pretty odd, but i feel it produces a tad better results. In any case, i point out that this engine sucks in that super-thin air, pressurizes it, and keeps producing far more power than any comparable non-turbocharged engine would produce at this alt, and even more than most “simply-turbocharged” engines would.

Good luck experimenting! :)

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What do you mean “feel”? Just use localhost to see which mode produces more power and thrust.