About The Ratings

The ratings used on this site are designed to roughly compare a plane's performance with the other planes in AH across multiple categories (rather than against real-life or projected benchmarks), and without having to to do tedious comparisons involving only a few planes at once. To make this work, several tests were run against all planes in the game and "best" and "worst" numbers were established. Once test data for all planes was collected, the data was scaled to a common range between 1 and 10 in each category, while maintaining the relative relationship to the best and worst numbers. This allows composite ratings and a "weighted" analysis to be performed, which allows you to place emphasis on different attributes if you wish.

DISCLAIMER:

While organizing data in this way does provide some crucial information and makes for some fun analysis of the planes in AH, it in no way means that any given plane will perform a certain way at any given time. There are COUNTLESS variables involved in the outcome of a dogfight, with the most important being the pilot's skill and how he applies it. With that said, you should be able to gain some very useful and interesting insight into the various planes and their performance.

Filters And Weighted Sorts

There are several ways you can view and filter the information presented here, including:

1. Filter the planes based on their usage (bomber, attacker, fighter)
2. Filter the planes based on nationality
3. Filter the planes based on their optimal operational altitude
4. Show or hide "perked" planes
5. Use a pre-defined weighted sort order, or create your own to emphasize certain attributes
6. Sort plane attributes based on priority
7. Sort the results in ascending or descending order
8. Round the rating values to create a more generalized view of the data.

Filters

Click on the "Plane Filters" button to show only certain types of planes. Multiple filters can be applied at once.

Priority Sort

The priority sort function allows you to sort planes based on multiple attributes, in their order of importance. It first rounds the ratings to the nearest whole number (thus grouping similar values and treating them as equivalent). The planes are then sorted from best to worst on the highest priority column, then the second, and so on. This function would answer a question such as "Which planes are the fastest at low alt, and out of these which have the best cockpit visibility, and which of these then have the best range?"

Weighted Sort

The weighted sort function allows you to emphasize certain attributes that you feel are more important than others by applying a multiplier to each rating. These weight values change the way the planes are sorted depending on the value assigned to each field. Unlike the priorty sort described above, the weighted sort arranges planes based on the total value of all weighted ratings, but without any priority. This function would answer a question such as "Which planes are a good combination of low alt speed, cockpit visibility, and fuel range?".

When a weighted sort is being displayed, you will see "CMw" (Composite Weighted") in the far right column. Clicking any other column header will clear the weighted sort and the planes will then sort on the clicked column, and you will see "CMu" (Composite Unweighted") at the far right. The CMu value is simply the sum of all of the plane's unweighted ratings; which could loosely be interpreted as an overall rating.

The "Presets" list box contains weight values for some common plane usages. You can select and apply these as they are, or modify them if you choose.

Note: Although you can use different values for the category weights, you will get the most consistent results by using a "1.0" for attributes that are very important, a "0.5" for those that are somewhat important, and a "0" for those that are not important at all. More specific values can be used to fine tune the results, but this should be done in moderation as it can sometimes cause skewed results.

About The Tests

Without getting into too much detail, here is a general explanation of how the ratings were established. Please note that there are many ways to test things. These were chosen based on most likely use in the game, time constraints, advice from experts, and best guesses :-)

• Top Speed - Low Alt - Data was taken directly from the speed charts generated by AH, averaged for low and high alt, and converted to a rating value.
• Top Speed - High Alt - Same as above
• Rate Of Climb - Low Alt - Same as above
• Rate Of Climb - High Alt - Same as above
• Cockpit Visibility - Black and white masks of cockpit views (default front and optimized rear) were created for each plane. The white pixels (non-plane) were then counted in each view, summed, and converted to a rating value.
• Deceleration - Basically the opposite of energy retention (see below)
• Energy Retention - This was done in conjunction with the dive acceleration test below. Planes were first stabilized in level flight at 5k, 200mph, lightest load possible. The plane was then pushed into a full power dive (WEP if available), leveling off at 1k. Dive acceleration was recorded, and the engines cut. The energy rating is based on how much speed was bled off in 30 seconds at a smooth level glide.
• Dive Acceleration - See "Energy Retention" above.
• Fuel Range - Calculated with full load (most likely usage) using ECB.
• Fuel Efficiency - Same as above, but also considers fuel capacity and speed.
• Minimum Turn Radius - Compiled from turn data from various sources (and my own tests), and converted to rating values.
• Maximum Turn Rate - Same as above... based on DPS (degrees per second)
• Roll Rate - Planes were stabilized in level flight at 5k, 250mph with lightest load possible. Smoothest roll with fastest time was recorded and converted to rating number. (planes were rolled in direction of prop torque for fastest RoR).
• Gun Power - This rating is based on the power and quantity of each gun. It evaluates the maximimum fire power that can be thrown at an enemy plane at any one time (firing all weapons simulataneously). Please note that it does not incorporate the rate of fire for each gun(yet).
• Killing Potential - Same as above, but also considers ammo count for each gun. Basically a function of gun power times ammo.
• Ordinance - The maximum amount of ordinance that can be carried for ground attack. This is normally bombs only, but where a mix of rockets and bombs are loaded, the rocket's equivalent ordinance power is used. This rating also considers the large cannons of the Hurri IId and the Yak-9T as equivalent ordinance.

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas and help on this project! (be sure to check the links at the bottom of the ratings page for more info).

Feel free to email me here with any comments or questions.

<S>!

Calan