Cruise Speed

[Stick]

In most stock settings of the aircraftdata.ini I've found this field is usually on the lower side of things...around 300kts. At that speed you are asking for punishment. Ive increased it to 500kts and found friendly AI survivability increase noticeably.

The figures e.g;CruiseSpeed=159.34 are in m/s so conversion would be in order(x1.9 or so) to get an idea of what you are hurling out there(in the given example I'd just increase it to 259.34).

I'm sure quite a few of us have already made this modification, but for those who haven't-it's a quicker way out of Dodge.

 

[+Gocad]

500 kts sounds like full throttle for some aircraft and that could affect their fuel consumption. Cruise speed is low since it's the speed you get the greatest range out of it. I doubt that an aircraft under fire would continue to fly at cruise speed, so if they do, it's more of an AI awareness issue.

[Stick]

As far as I think ingress speeds need to be high...and this is the only parameter that affects the same...the reason I mention this is because I have noticed an increase in survival; what happens is an aircraft entering into an engagement at 300kts is out of energy once he makes his first evasion from SAM's and has gotten less farther away from the threat than one that was flying at a higher speed.

Might I add that this is with reference to WOI circa '79-though I am confident that the results would be the same in other environments as well.

Adjust to taste. I fly Eagles, Falcons and Phantom's mostly so I generally fly fast and low.

Besides, the AI do not run out of fuel.

[+Gocad]

...

Besides, the AI do not run out of fuel.

 

They do. Especially 3rd party aircraft with false RANGE values are prone to it. There are some prop aircraft where it happens quite often. Eventually the props stop spinning, they start to glide and loose speed until they stall and crash.

[+Fubar512]

Keep in mind that you're setting cruise speed in IAS, not TAS. 325 KIAS at 22000 feet is about 500 knots IAS at sea level.

[Derk]

They do. Especially 3rd party aircraft with false RANGE values are prone to it. There are some prop aircraft where it happens quite often. Eventually the props stop spinning, they start to glide and loose speed until they stall and crash.

 

And in lots of cases they don't because quite some the aircraft have 20% to 50% too much fuel (the amount in liters or lbs applied to kilo's).

Furthermore it hardly ever happens that the enemy brakes off the fight for lack of fuel and if they go home they do so quite often at supersonic speeds ... Never saw one gliding or crashing for fuel starvation.

Sorry for being somewhat OT, this discussion has been on before....

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

Edited April 1, 2010 by Derk

[+FastCargo]

I've seen AI aircraft run out of fuel, or pitch out of a fight after they hit their own bingo.

 

Cruise speed is just that...for cruise. Now, in theory, you should pump up your speed at FENCE in, which is the sim, I would make at the IP. But getting to and from? Fuel economy is the key...because you're going to need that gas.

 

If you run a full mission, with no time skip, you'll see a lot more fuel issues, especially if you hang around in a knife fight.

 

FC

[+Spillone104]

Well... maybe altering the cruise speed parameter have sense on some kind of aircrafts. Especially interceptors that are scrambled and they have to reach the intercept point at high speed. And the range usually is not soo great.

[+FastCargo]

Possible.

 

The other problem is that Cruise altitude is a 'global' parameter...ie my F-103/F-108/B-70/CF-105 all run best at 60k plus altitude, but the sim defaults to something closer to mid 30s at most. If you try to change this parameter globally, then you have other aircraft that shouldn't fly at that altitude...pretty funny to watch an F-100 try to escort a B-70 at 70k when using Alt-N. Looks like a meteor storm with all the falling contrails (red and blue air) when coming out of time skip.

 

FC

[Stick]

In campaigns I dont use time skip...you cheaters!