Comments by "TheThirdMan" (@thethirdman225) on "The Westland Welkin; Whirlwind’s High Flying Sibling" video.

  1. Pierre Clostermann, in his book, ’The Big Show’, describes the successful interception of a high altitude Bf-109G over Scapa Flow in a Spitfire Mk IV. During the flight, he and his wingman climbed to at least 41,000 ft.
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  2. You got most of that right. But Mach number varies with temperature. And yes, temperature varies with altitude, etc.. But you are 100% correct. People need to stop thinking in quality terms like ‘it can go like 450 mph’ (I’m looking at you America) and realise that Mach number is what decides shock buildup, drag divergence Mach number, Critical Mach Number and all those other things that impose limits on air frames that otherwise seem to have unlimited potential, especially to fanbois. The trouble is that very few people understand dimensionless numbers and Mach number is a dimensionless number.
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