CW-21
CW-21
AEC:
The CW-21 was incredibly frustrating to fly, it's the first "Plan B" race plane in this study. For a "Plan A" racer they are essentially, "racing the line" or the most efficient way for a conventional vehicle to race through a particular route. Plan B in this study means the offending aircraft needs to conserve as much energy throughout a turn in order to remain competitive. Or in other words “Plan B” racers have such poor energy retention there's a whole different way to fly them.
The CW-21 enters the race at about 270 mph but by the first hair pin it’ll lose about 50 mph with no hopes of ever gaining it back. At least the engine is powerful enough to get it back to 280 quickly but later in the race after some consecutive turns the energy retention is too much of a problem and the aircraft never saw 280 again. Another quirk of this aircraft is with its AOA. As with most aircraft as they near their top level speeds the nose of the aircraft will drift down, sometimes enough to be on the horizon line, or some aircraft are quick enough to have a noticeable negative AOA while flying straight. The CW-21 is so far the first aircraft to maintain a noticeable positive AOA throughout the race and it's enough to throw me off. It sits around a positive 3-5 degrees even at its fastest speeds. That combined with its already quirky flight model made this the most aggravating aircraft so far.
The engine fully overheats after the third hair pin which can be annoying as the race isn't even half way over. As standard procedure I reduce throttle to 100% and after overheating three times it's as if the engine forgot it was supposed to overheat a fourth time and took significantly longer to do so despite the engine being at the appropriate temperature to do so. (editors note) I was wondering why that was happening and through further testing I found that the more time I spent off of WEP the more time I could spend in WEP. Or in other words after the engine has cooled down sufficiently I need to spend more time on 100% throttle, earning me extra time in WEP later. If I wait an extra five seconds in yellow numbers I could get up to twenty more seconds in WEP before the next overheat, compared directly to jumping on WEP the moment I could again. It pays dividends to be a hair more patient with this cooling system, however I'm unsure if this significantly affects the AEC time. Yes I could have optimized further but my patience was running thin and there are other more important things in this study.
MEC:
By MEC testing I had already figured out the bulk of the quirks of this aircraft, which is why the numbers are a lot more consistent. That being said a Plan B racer will always have a wide time spread because its flight model is just too unpredictable. The CW-21 does not have a controllable radiator or cowl system so the only way to cool the engine is with adjustments in prop pitch. 95% is enough for infi-wep, 97% isn't quite inif-wep worthy but it's long enough to not matter for this race.
Fun Facts:
When the CW-21 was introduced into the game it was at a BR of 1.3 (ish) in battles and utterly destroyed everything it ever went up against.
The Flying Tigers were supposed to use the CW-21 in battle against Japan but all three examples that had been delivered to them by 1940 had crashed due to poor visibility.
By April of 1940 the Dutch had placed an order for 24 CW-21B’s, a version of the aircraft with retracting gear and hydraulically actuated control surfaces.
The CW-21B is told to have been slightly faster when cruising but had a poorer climb.