WesWorld

Ah, I'd misread it then. It all depends on how combat radius is defined then, of course, which is rather confusing since every source seems to define it differently.

As far as I know:
- Range is how far you can fly before you run out of fuel.
- Radius is how far you can fly and get back to the point where you started before you run out of fuel.
- Combat radius is how far you can fly, perform your mission and get back to the point where you started before you run out of fuel.

I've taken combat radius as (range/2) -20% with the 20% of fuel being spent on climb/reserve which seems reasonable from some of the WWII data sheets.

Stats for the CR.36 Bifulosera
Crew: 1
Span: 40ft Length: 30ft Wing Area: 200sq ft
Empty Weight: 6800lb Maximum Weight: 11000lb
Engines: 2 x 1070hp RC.50
Maximum Speed: 430mph @ 16000ft Ceiling: 40000ft
Range: 2500nm ~ 1000m radius but probably needs an external tank to have enough space

Exactly: it's the "perform your mission" part that tends to be defined differently by each different source. For example: the wikipedia article on the Spitfire Vb gives a combat radius of 410 nm and a ferry range of 991 nm. That means that this source is giving the Spit 171 nm of fuel to do whatever it needs to do (fight, loiter to join formation, etc). Other sources will increase the amount of fuel needed to do those things, and reduce the combat radius accordingly (a combat radius that's 40% of the ferry range means that only 20% of the range after landing reserves is being used for mission-related flying, a fairly low percentage).

20% climb/reserve is probably OK for low-level operations that don't need much formation building: recon missions definitely qualify here. If the operation is taking place at higher altitudes or are large, a larger climb/reserve is probably a good idea.