The Mk XVI clips its wings
When the Spitfire Mk XVI and the F4U-1C Corsair joined the hangar, they brought new guns but borrowed their parents' wings and engines. Now each one flies like the real sub-type did, so earning one changes how you fight, not just what you shoot.
Spitfire Mk XVI: fight it low
Many Mk XVIs flew with their elliptical wingtips clipped off, and the hangar's now flies with that shorter wing. A shorter wing rolls faster. With the stick hard over the XVI rolls about a fifth faster than the Mk IX, and that's often enough to reverse onto a bandit's tail before the break is finished.
Under the cowl is a Packard Merlin rated for the deck. It pours on boost low down, so near the treetops and through the middle of a furball the XVI runs about 20 km/h faster than the IX and out-climbs it.
You pay for that in two ways:
- **It turns a little wider.** A smaller wing means a few percent less turn than the IX. In a flat circling fight, the IX still edges it. - **It runs out of breath up high.** Past about 900 m on your altimeter the engine starts to fade. By 1,500 m the Mk IX out-climbs you by a sixth and is the quicker of the two.
So fly it the way the real pilots did: stay low, keep your speed, roll into the fight and out of it again, and leave the high perch to someone else. If a bandit is sitting above you, don't chase it up there. Make it come down.
F4U-1C: the weight of four cannon
Four 20 mm Hispanos and their drums weigh more than six fifties, and the Corsair carries them far out in the gull wing. The cannon Corsair is heavier, a touch slower into a roll, and a few km/h slower flat out than the six-gun Corsair. It's still big, fast and rugged, and it hits like nothing else with a propeller except the Fw 190. Line up your pass early, because it won't flick round as quickly as the six-gun model.
Earning them
Nothing changes on the ladder: the Mk XVI unlocks at 5 career kills and the F4U-1C at 15. The hangar card's line now tells you how each one flies, and the bots still never get their hands on either.