Dudley Henriques wrote
I seem to remember the Navy defining barrel rolls in the J Stage of
training in the F9F-8 Cougar as a shallow dive at about 95% to 350kts;
level off and trim; then roll the airplane around a point 45 degrees
off the nose to either side; initial acelleration to about 3g's; the
nose should reach a point about 45 degrees above the horizon at the 90
degree point; the roll rate was adjusted to achieve a 90 degree
heading change at the 180 degree point inverted; ; you looked for
about 180 to 200 kts at the top inverted where you were looking at
about 1+g if you did it right; as the nose came through the back side,
you adjusted the roll rate to nail level flight again at your initial
entry speed of 350kts. You would play the g from the initial 3 during
the entry down to the 1 at the top, then play back in the 3 during the
recovery back to level flight.

And that seems to be the way that the IAC defines a barrel roll at the
posted reference. They and the Navy make no reference for doing them
any other way. Neither does William Kernsher who has an oustanding
reputation for instructing and writing books on aerobatic instruction.

But all this dosen't change the fact that a barrel roll can be done
much tighter than this and doing it that way dosen't change the fact
that you are doing a barrel roll :-))

Just point me to the references that make this point. :-)

Bob Moore