Each aircraft has a rate of climb listed in their stats. Now I would assume this is calculated at a certain angle/speed combination so that the airframe is not losing speed as it climbs to altitude.
My question is, is there a preferred angle for each aircraft? I know it can be affected by the airframe itself, horse power of the engines, and what kind of payload it could be carrying when it comes to bombers and attack aircraft but is it just a general angle say 10 degrees or is it an aircraft by aircraft basis and if so is there a place to find out what it is or do you have to google old flight manuals for WWII aircraft and just guess with more modern stuff?
Simple answer is where your plane isn’t loosing or gaining any airspeed. But it can be hard to know exactly where that angle is so I would just recommend to just holding an angle where your still gaining a bit of speed
Oh wow, that’s basically questions without straight answers.
Really short answer:
that stat shown in the game is most likely the optimal achievable rate of climb for that specific aircraft.
Short answer:
I depends on so many factors that the rate of climb isn’t a static number but a formula where for each situation you get a different rate of climb.
Some of the factors that affect it is (at any given situation); airspeed, altitude (air density), drag, coefficient of lift (that in many modern military jets depend highly on the angle of attack), angle compared to horisontal, thrust to weight ratio (which also changes due to fuel consumption and munition usage), and many more factors.
So unless you have the actual formula for any given aircraft at any given situation its basically impossible to manually calculate.
And if you want to optimise the in game climb, get up to high horisontal speed and slowly angle up, if you are loosing speed continuously you have gone to far in the angle, constant speed or increase in speed is what you want as you get higher up. Then continuously adjust the angle down as speed starts decreasing again (the higher upp you go, the aircraft can get less angle as the air gets thinner and you eventually stall at max altitude)
I think i got everything right, but everyone is free to correct me if i missed anything or said anything wrong.
First off, “optimal climb angle” is not what you want to use. That being said, what you want to focus on is your airspeed (ias).
I’m going to start off and try to explain why “optimal climb angle” is the wrong mindset. “Energy state” is what you want to focus on and have an advantage in. Id rather be going 400kph and 500m lower than an enemy than 280kph and 500m higher. Think belly shot on a bomber ect.
Most prop. planes, across the board for all nations do not generate as much thrust and have worse propeller efficiency under 200-250kph ias.
Generally speaking, there is very little difference in overall altitude gain between climbing at 280kph and 350-400kph. however, being at 350-400kph is a much better “energy state” to be in (speed is life, altitude is insurance)
Going under 280kph makes most prop planes heat up, and many times overheat, at a minimum it usually makes the radiator open more creating drag and/or less time in WEP before engine overheats.
Conclusion:
Short version, climb at 280kph (ias) minimum for any plane and youll be fine, dont use “climb angle”.
Notice I used the word minimum, not absolute. just because you can climb at 280kph and have that climb rate doesnt mean you can maneuver at that speed. USA planes are a great example of this, you can climb at 280kph but you generally want to climb at around 350-400kph min in USA planes since they dont accelerate very well and need that speed to be able to get the nose around (min maneuvering speed)
Within WTRTI you can go into a testflight and plot SEP in function of IAS, and then accelerate from near stall to a high speed to generate an accurate enough graph.