Mr. Joaquin Mejia Alberdi sent in a question about a rule that's not exactly covered: Aircraft dive speed. Although it's covered in CaS there is no mention of it in Harpoon. Modern aircraft can certainly increase speed by diving. A plane must lose a significant amount of altitude if it ants to gain speed. Looking at section 3.3.4, to exceed its speed at a throttle setting in an altitude band it must dive 1/3 of the distance it travels horizontally. In other words, if a plane has a top speed of Mach 1.5 at altitude (861 knots, or 3.5 nm per phase) then this means (if we use the 1.5 multiplier) that it can reach Mach 2.25 (1291 knots, 5.4 nm per phase) in a dive, but it will lose 3300 meters per phase. To go faster than its "level" speed, a plane will have to pay a price in altitude.
BT