Focke-Wulf Fw 190A poor high-altitude performance

[Graham Boak]

And Allison did a two-stage supercharger, which saw production in the P-63, and postwar in the F-82.

It is worth pointing out that phrases such as "poor high-altitude performance" is only meaningful comparated to those aircraft with turbochargers or two-stage superchargers. The Fw 190 was superior to the Yaks and Lavochkins it faced on the Eastern front, although curiously it does not seem to have gained the same reputation in the East that it had in the West. A supercharger design is set to a given pressure, and hence a given fixed throttle height. Witness the "cropped" LF series of Merlins, which gave the Spitfire LF Mk.V possibly the highest low-level climb rate of any WW2 service fighter, but reached its maximum power at only 5000ft.