"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
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"Bill Silvey" wrote in message
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"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in
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"Chad Irby" wrote in message
. ..

Putting a plane into a 40 degree dive doesn't count, or the P-38
would have made this "record" in 1941.


Supersonic flight in a dive would have counted, but no P-38 ever
exceeded the speed of sound in any attitude.

I don't have it in front of me but IIRC Yeager said in "Wings" that
a P-51 could do it.

Don't think so. Yeager knows better than this believe me. But I'm
sure what he did say could easily have been mistaken , as he has
discussed high mach dives in prop fighters on many occasions.
Sometimes during these "discussions", listening to Yeager speak....
it's entirely possible to come away with a mistaken impression unless
you are listening VERY closely to what he's saying. That "drawl" of
his kind of sits in your ears and floats around there for a while
before it either enters your brain or gets spit out :-)

I double-checked; Yeager said he'd gotten his P51 to Mach .7 in a dive.

Sorry for the confusion.

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