Gattman wrote:

Question: If they were active military aircraft they would more likely have
same powerplants, same construction, same mechanics and maintenance policies
and all the things that would make them behave similarly at identical pitch
and power settings. Is this correct?

If so, is it possible that since the two aircraft were manufactured and
maintained separately, there could have been subtle performance variations
that made it more possible for the rear plane to overtake the other when the
approach configuration is the same? There's a pretty big difference
between a scratch-built A model and a D (that's already crashed once) is
there not?


Even if they were both factory built, and maintained by the same
organization, there is a very large difference between an A and a D.
The entire powerplant is different, and there is a significant
weight difference, so their landing performance would vary
significantly.

Mike W.