Morgans wrote:
"Corky Scott" wrote


During WWII, my impression is that nearly all the escort fighters and
for sure all the bombers were over gross for every mission.


The Hiroshima bomber took off 8 tons overweight. Wow.
OK but that was a very special mission, not the typical test pilot task.

Test pilots are not supposed to see how much over gross they can fly.
They do things like fly in a 60-deg bank at 420 kts with a power setting
of X to see what altitude change results.