D.521 (Great Britain)

▄D.521

▄D.521

Britain

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.3	3.0	2.7

Class:

Fighter

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

Show in game

Description

The D.521 (Great Britain) in the garage

The ▄D.521 is a Rank II gift British fighter with a battle rating of 3.3 (AB), 3.0 (RB), and 2.7 (SB). This aircraft was introduced in the game during the Open Beta session during the 13 June 2013 event "Vive la Liberté!" and remains as an event vehicle today. The D.521 was a modified variant of the French Dewoitine D.520 which featured a Rolls Royce Merlin III engine and slight armament changes. Only one model was ever produced.

The D.521 is essentially a slightly improved version of the D.520. It has a somewhat improved engine (Rolls-Royce Merlin III) which constitutes the one major change. It does however have a slightly worse turn and climb rate which may be due to the added weight of said engine. At either rate, tactically, it is advised that you have good knowledge of the various aircraft's you will face as it does not excel at any one thing. By applying situational awareness and a degree of caution to your approach, you may find yourself to be quite successful with this machine, but regardless of if you approach this in Arcade or Realistic battles, you need to have a good idea about the aircraft you are likely to face in the battle rating of this aircraft.

General info

Flight Performance

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 6,500 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
548	536	12000	22.4	22.9	5.8	7.3	310
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 6,500 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
594	570	12000	19.6	21.0	16.0	10.0	310

Details

Features
Combat flap	Take-off flap	Landing flap	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wing-break speed (km/h)	Gear limit (km/h)	Combat flap (km/h)	Max Static G
			+	-
0	340	400	~18	~15

Optimal velocities
Ailerons (km/h)	Rudder (km/h)	Elevators (km/h)	Radiator (km/h)
< 400	< 430	< 460	> 250

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
4,953 m	924 hp	1,024 hp

Survivability and armour

• No armour plating
• No armour glazing
• Critical components located at the front of aircraft (fuel, pilot, engine, controls)
• More fuel tanks located in wings near the fuselage

Armaments

Offensive armament

The D.521 (Great Britain) is armed with:

• 1 x 20 mm Hispano 404 cannon, nose-mounted (60 rpg)
• 4 x 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun, wing-mounted (675 rpg = 2,700 total)

Usage in the battles

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Controllable	Not controllable	Controllable	Combined	Not controllable	Controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance		Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage Repair	Radiator
II		Compressor	Airframe
III	Wings Repair	Engine
IV		Engine Injection	Cover

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 5 Guns. One 20 mm 404 Hispano Cannon near the nose of the aircraft and 4 7.5mm MAC 1934 machine guns in the wings
• Plenty of ammo for the machine-guns
• Powerful nose-mounted 20 mm cannon
• Good all round low tier fighter aircraft

Cons:

• Neither very manoeuvrable or very fast
• Very little ammo for the 20 mm cannon. Limited to 60 shells
• Relatively poor rate of climb

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

In-game description

A single-seat monoplane fighter with an all-metal construction, closed cockpit and retractable landing gear with a tail wheel. Designed by the SNCAM (Societe Nationale des constructions aeronautiques du Midi) company. The developmental prototype of the Dewoitine D.520-01 fighter took its maiden flight on 2 October 1938. Series production began at the SNCAM (later SNCASE) plant in Toulouse.

While perfecting the series-produced Dewoitine D.520 fighters, designers also worked to create new models of the same plane. In November 1939, work began on creating the Dewoitine D.521 model, equipped with the British liquid-cooled V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk.III engine with a rated output of 1,030 hp. It was suggested that a fighter fitted with this engine could reach a maximum horizontal speed of 570 km/h.

Since an engine-mounted cannon could not be installed on the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, two Hispano-Suiza H.S.404 cannons were mounted on the wings instead. This meant that all the Dewoitine D.521's weaponry was mounted on the wings, and consisted of two 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 drum magazine cannons with 60 shells each and four 7.5 mm Chatellerault MAC 1934 machine guns with 675 rounds each.

Note that precise information (primarily photographs) on the practical configuration of the Dewoitine D.521's Hispano-Suiza wing-mounted cannons is not available. For this reason, we can only make educated guesses about the fighter's armament structure.

One of the early series-produced Dewoitine D.520 fighters was selected to be adapted as the Dewoitine D.521-01 prototype. Its maiden flight took place on 9 February 1940. It had an improved climbing rate, but the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was significantly heavier than the Hispano-Suiza 12Y installed on the series-produced planes, and this caused problems with the plane's center of gravity. Testing continued until March 1940. On the whole, the new plane failed to exceed the performance of the series-produced Dewoitine D.520s, and the Dewoitine D.521 project was closed.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example,

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

Sources

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• topic on the official game forum;
• page on aircraft encyclopedia;
• other literature.