Any publicly available spreadsheets listing WW1 and WW2 aircraft with specifications?

[billcorr]

Any publicly available spreadsheets listing WW1 and WW2 aircraft?

When comparing different aircraft from a historical point of view, it could be useful to have a spreadsheet listing all relevant aircraft (monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes, wood, metal, cloth and airships (metal and cloth)) that could be used in HoI4.

If you know of such a spread sheet, please share the link.

Looking specifically to compare

• Date introduced
• Power
• Maximum speed
• Rate of climb
• Wing loading
• Power/mass
• Armament
• Range
• Wing type (mono, bi, tri, etc)
• Metal, wood, cloth construction

(which specifications are missing that relates to HoI4 characteristics?)

 

[Kovax]

I vaguely recall several aerial combat board and miniature games for WWI and WWII which incorporated all of that, and while not in a single spreadsheet form, they're all clearly listed. Unfortunately, the names of most of those games escapes me at present.

One of them was "something","Blue Sky", with the "something" changing for each expansion to a different theater of war: Black Cross, Red Star, Dark Sea, etc.

 

[billcorr]

I vaguely recall several aerial combat board and miniature games for WWI and WWII which incorporated all of that, and while not in a single spreadsheet form, they're all clearly listed. Unfortunately, the names of most of those games escapes me at present.

One of them was "something","Blue Sky", with the "something" changing for each expansion to a different theater of war: Black Cross, Red Star, Dark Sea, etc.

Good suggestion.

Working with that idea of checking out board games and their statistics, the data might be available on the plane cards contained in the AirForce Dauntless series.

 

[Kovax]

I'd be able to give you more info about aircraft games in another week and a half, since I'll be attending the Historical Miniature Gamers Society's "Fall In" convention in Lancaster, PA next Friday. (HMGS.org for details)

 

[billcorr]

Here is a start:

http://acepilots.com/planes/specs.html

Is there another site?

 

[SeekTruthFromFx]

A few days ago I was drafting a Suggestion for an HoI 4 aircraft designer and so I typed "ww2 aircraft spreadsheet" into Google. The second or third entry was this page, which suggests (a) great minds think alike (or at least @billcorr and I do ); (b) no such spreadsheet is currently publicly accessible.

So I have started to make one and you are welcome to contribute if you share this interest.

There's a questionnaire for each plane on Google Forms. You don't need a Google account (and you should never write passwords in Google Forms). I chose this method because it forces me (and others) to stick to a limited number of categories. You can see the data in spreadsheet form, but it has to be manually updated (Forms -> spreadsheet is a one-way process). At a later stage I intend to open up the spreadsheet for a Wiki-style process if there's interest from other contributors. In the meantime, I have asked contributors to provide a ParadoxPlaza name so that we can discuss it here.

Comments and suggestions, both on the process (e.g. the categories that I have chosen) and the substance (the aircraft data) are welcome. This thread seems the obvious place.

A few explanations of the questions and categories:
- I have tried to focus on specs which are relevant to HoI 4 air warfare (in 1.6+) and/or would potentially be techs or modules in an HoI4 Aircraft Designer.
- For example, 'maximum ceiling' is omitted because altitude plays no role in the game's air combat mechanic.
- But 'octane rating' is included, because this could be used to trade-off fuel consumption for speed within the existing game mechanics.
- One consequence of this is that none of the data is relevant to Agility. AFAIK, the game's Agility's score are entirely subjective.

 

[noobermenschen]

Here is a start:

http://acepilots.com/planes/specs.html

Is there another site?

I am a little suspicious of many of those climb rates, such as the P-36 outclimbing every other pre-1944 US fighter including the Hellcat and Corsair, and the Ki-44 outclimbing the Ki-84. Also no change in climb rate for advanced marks of the P-38 in spite of greatly improved engines and propellers. Climb rates for Soviet Yaks seem a little superhero-ish and the Me-109 and FW-190 seem a little low for aircraft that worried the RAF for most of the war. No climb rate data at all on that chart for the Zero.

 

[gagenater]

I am a little suspicious of many of those climb rates, such as the P-36 outclimbing every other pre-1944 US fighter including the Hellcat and Corsair, and the Ki-44 outclimbing the Ki-84. Also no change in climb rate for advanced marks of the P-38 in spite of greatly improved engines and propellers. Climb rates for Soviet Yaks seem a little superhero-ish and the Me-109 and FW-190 seem a little low for aircraft that worried the RAF for most of the war. No climb rate data at all on that chart for the Zero.

That's because the OP is asking for single statistics for things which often don't have single answers. EVERY single one of the 'data points' he is trying to gather is in fact actually a collection of variables, or worse yet, a large set of graphs of data.

• Date introduced

What do we want here - prototype first flown? First serial production? First use in the armed forces? First flown in combat? These dates can be a decade apart in some cases

• Power

Varies with altitude (supercharged or not? turbocharged or not? single stage or two stage? these all produce different peak power levels at different altitudes, fuel type (best possible? best usually available? Worst it will run on?). Maximum cruising power? Maximum emergency power? Even if it can only be sustained for a few minutes? and for planes in production for long time periods, on when in the production run they were made.

• Maximum speed

Varies with everything that power varies with as well as fuel loading, weapons loading, and humidity

• Rate of climb

Varies with everything that power and speed vary by, and often by an order of magnitude. A plane can be very difficult to handle, and slow to respond at low altitude, and then have great performance above 10,000 ft, or vice versas.

• Wing loading

Varies with engine type, ammunition load, fuel load, etc.

• Power/mass

Varied dramatically depending on what the aircraft was set up for on it's mission - ex the B 25's that Doolittle flew off the aircraft carrier hornet weighed less than 1/2 as much as B 25's equipped for short range ground attack in the European theater loaded up with massive amounts of rockets and bombs.

• Armament

Again, highly variable

• Range

Depends on everything we have discussed so far, as well as pilot skill, enemy activity, and standard operating procedures of the airforce in question.

• Wing type (mono, bi, tri, etc)

What about planes with 1 1/2 wings? is this a biplane?
There are also lifting body designs, and other oddities.

• Metal, wood, cloth construction

sometimes changed - ex - the UK and USSR both had planes which came in models with all metal or with wood and cloth wings. Or what about the Mosquito? metal sheeting on a wooden frame. The Hawker Hurricane was of mixed aluminum, steel and linen construction.

It's an interesting theoretical idea to come up with a table like this, but there are good solid reasons why nobody has actually done it. There are just too many variables.