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

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
21

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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22

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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23

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.

24

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.

17652m
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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.

26

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:

29

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?

image
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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.

30

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! :)

31

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

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By “feel”, i mean comparing both via observing aircraft speed changes when using them, in-game. I don’t use any commands, mods or anything else not available in the game in its menus and by its keyboard-binded functions. Because i know that only by doing so, i’m playing the game in a way most other players do, and that’s how i prefer it.

33

In this case the second supercharger stage straight up doesn’t work at altitudes that high and produces 0 horsepower, so yeah you’re gonna feel that. Another indication that the flight model and compressor settings are just busted.

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So you’re saying that should 2nd stage be working, then it’ll climb even higher? Well, “busted” it may be, then, but at least both ways, huh.

However, to be meticulous, i haven’t seen any solid evidence, yet, that its flight model is anyhow busted in the “allows to climb higher than it should be” way. Only hear-say. Perhaps someone’s jealous about being unable to beat my record? I mean, it’s possible reason to hear people say “oh this aircraft is all broken”, eh. And i have no way to know for sure which thing it actually is. ;)

35

I really couldn’t care less about your record friend. I’m just annoyed by broken things.

36

Alright, if so, then i’m surprised i hear nothing from you about that IRL biplane going above 17 km in 1938. Doesn’t it prove, without a shade of doubt, that late-WW2 piston-engined high altitude interceptors, at very least when intentionally prepared and piloted not for combat, but for beating altitude records - would be able to climb to 18+ km? In your opinion, i mean.

Also, in 1995, Grob Strato 2C, which is a piloted piston-engined monoplane, set the current altitude record for such aircraft, which is 18561 m. Turbocharged and pretty modern, of course, but still, it proves for a fact that this kind of aircraft - can, in principle, fly at 18+ km.

So, what exactly is broken, then?

37

Most players don’t use MEC either, I would guess, but you are using it anyways. Most players that bothered to learn how to play this game also access data from localhost one way or another. Personally I learned how mixture affects certain planes, so it is a very useful feature of the game client.
Localhost (the internal web server) is part of the game client, with a user interface made by Gaijin themselves, for players to use. The same way you need external software to access the graphical part of the game (using your graphics driver), you need to use a browser (or any tool that communicates over HTTP) to access the game’s internal web server.
Your self imposed limitation does not make any sense to me, and you follow it arbitrarily.
If you want to give it a shot, enter localhost:8111 into your browser while you’re flying. You can reorganize the windows within the page. You can also access the internal web server from another device on the same network, like a mobile phone, by using your computer’s internal IP address, like 192.168.X:8111

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38

Hey, man, you’re a rare breed right here, you know? The breed which genuinely tries to help other people, even strangers (i’m a stranger to you, i recon). You just explained, in proper detail, how to use localhost feature in WT, to me, for no gain whatsoever.

Man, i hope i am of this same breed, too; only hoping, because, you know, they say that it’s something for others to judge. And it is hella great to meet another human of the same kind. Thank you, man, for your post and for your personality! :)

As for localhost, yes, i know how it works; back in mid-2010s, when i was beating everybody in air racing events, tournaments and championships (well, most of the time, of course - can’t do it literally all the time) - i used localhost data with utmost attention. Top-level racing, you get every edge you can, because quite some others sure will. But for shenanigans like this, i play it “soft”; ain’t spending weeks and months to squeeze every little meter and km/h it can be, as i did back then, and ain’t trying to set a record nobody ever could beat. Relatively little and quick shenanigans like this, leaving some room for anyone interested to try and beat it - there would be very few if any at all - is all OK to me.

39

And as promised, here are deets on that 826 km/h prop:

The aircraft is US rank 3 regular P-61C-1. Full video and big comment - here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/1qugotc/826_kmh_new_speed_record_for_pistonengined/ . And here’s a short clip of ~8 km of flying at precisely 16,000 meters at this speed.