Why is the LF Spitfire Mk.IX so loved?

Did you know we have a 2 stage trigger that if you pull half way it olyn fires mg’s and you pull all the way it fires cannins as well. You may need to adjust the multiplier and correction for it to work properly (Fire (Machine Guns / Cannons)

I did not know about that… Thats really neat i’ll give it a go because I could do with using that button for other things. Cheers dude, I can’t believe I didn’t know about that.

It the same with left trigger, you can track target or aim target, (Tracking / aiming axis) in camera control.
I only found out by accident, ive been messing around with controls for agies. Its a bit buggy ie when you try to rope de dope someone as when you track and control direction in certain angles to target you plane will dive, but your notice a white arrow around your screen telling you where your curser is. I have been trying to get gaijin to change / fix it for agies with not much of even a reply

I would be intrested to swap controler binds as i am allways experimenting and looking for new ideas and can maybe start a new topic in xbox section. I have some very interesting binds

If you start a topic I’d be happy to share all of mine with anyone who wants them. I too am always looking for new controller binds as there’s just too many features and too few buttons on a controller

1 Like

Please do share

Dont forget the attacker at 7.0. For an early jet. You can fly it like a late spitfire. I am currently spading it and am getting impressed.

Well isn’t it selfexplanatory?

Spitfires are already very good.
Most fughts in WT are at mid to low altitude.

The LF is the term for liw altitude speciqlized spitfires. So they are the ines that fit WT the best.

2 Likes

Her is a little history lesson.
Spitfire started off as sea launched racing planes for speed trials before WW2. Due to the armistice germany was banned from taking part. Germany being banned, they had no access to british tech, including cooling systems hence why bf109’s are heavier and over heat quicker

Germany cheated hard on the armistice including sending Bf 109s to fight in the spanish civil war. They found ways around it including building bombers under the pretense of passenger liners (see He 111). The armistice hindered them, but it didn’t stop them.

While the allies were generally ahead in tech the germans did have lots of great stuff including a computer for the engine that made throttling up as easy as sliding up the throttle bar. Meanwhile, Allied pilots had to adjust mixture, propeller pitch and throttle settings to change power, and when going to a lower throttle they had to do this in reverse order. Doing this wrong resulted in a lot of damaged engines.

In war thunder, most spitfires are uncompetitive against most Bf 109s. It’s only once we get to the LF IX and Mk XIV that the spitfire can put up a fight against anything resembling a coordinated team.

1 Like

Spitfire has a ton of drag because of large radiators.
Bf 109s were outperforming Spitfires significantly in early 1940. Then Brits hade received high octane fuel from US and so during BoB they gained the performance upper hand.
The thing is, for a large part of the war, Bf 109 was the faster of these 2 planes, and one of the reasons was better radiator design.

Germany was behind when it comes to fuel and engine oil. As a result Bf 109 and Fw 190 had to run lower engine oil temp, and since oil was mixing with fuel to some extent, this was slowing down the fuel evaporation from the oil, which caused oil to get diluted over time if engine was pushed too hard.
And C3 fuel was not only fairly rare, but also due to its properties, it was evaporating at a lower rate than allied high octane fuel.
End result?
You can’t really find any German engine being pushed really hard with C3 fuel. There’s some slight performance gain over B4+MW50, but it’s nowhere near as significant as in case of allied higher octane fuel.

1 Like

Source please. Intresting stuff

And what kind of source did you provide? I’ll give you one. Check Spitfire’s engine power, weight and dimensions and look at its topspeed at sea level and 1000m alt. Now compare that to 109 and 190.
Spitfire had mediocre to bad radiator design hence only Mk XXII has “decent” low alt speed, which is still inferior to Fw 190 D9 or Bf 109 K4.

I am not knocking your information i am genuinely intrested andi would like to compare sources. Not what gaijin says

I never even mentioned anything at all about speed. You idea about the oil maybe c orrect and maybe a contributing factor into why early bfq09’s over heat.

Some stuff here: http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/

Anyway, top speed being higher on 109 and 190 compared to spitfire is more a product of wing drag than radiator drag…

Because you see, the drag on radiators for the K4 is higher than the 14e

Spit 14e (LF has the same, btw)

“RadiatorCd”: 0.007, “OilRadiatorCd”: 0.0005,

109 K4

“RadiatorCd”: 0.008, “OilRadiatorCd”: 0.002,

Top speeds and engine power:

Spit 14e@SL, 567 kph, 1852 hp
K4@SL, 603 kph, 1887 hp

Both closed rads…

1 Like

Thankyou

Where do these numbers come from?

But it’s interesting, since LF Mk IX radiators seem to be damn blocky, compared to slim Bf 109 rads. I guess looks are deceiving in this case…

…assuming these numbers are correct.

But it seems while Bf 109 F series had a fairly advanced radiator design, in G series it got simplified and then no longer upgraded. Me-309 had some interesting upgrades, but of course got scrapped because of DB603 shortage and Me-262 hopes, so I guess good for the world, but bad for warthunder :P

I remember how that thing used to be back in 2013…no matter who your enemy was, you could always outclimb him. You always starged any fight with an altitude advantage of at least 1000m.

I didn’t know that it is still that popular though.

It’s very good but it’s easy to fall into the turnfighting trap that leaves you wide open for getting 3rd partied. When I know I’ll die to LF Mk IX I always try to get him low and relatively slow so at least my sacrifice is not in vain.
But the worst thing about Mk IX is overheating. It’s a hot boiii.

2 Likes