Spitfire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

BBC4 Tonight at 9 o'clock, documentary on the aeroplane. If you haven't seen it, a good watch:bowdown::cool:

fantastic aircraft but i read somewhere that the hurricane shot down more german aircraft than the spitfire but i my be wrong lol rgds mark

They're doing another documentary called "Lancaster":bowdown::cool:

You're not wrong. The Hurricane was the workhorse to the Spitfire's thoroughbred. It could take far more punishment thanks to the wood & canvas airframe & was much easier to patch up & get flying again.

This programme is on record at home.

Aviation enthusiasts check out the the Smithsonian channel.Many previously unseen programmes and highly avaiation biased.Channel 99 Freeview.

I've caught a few interesting thing on that channel including a documentary about the gun trucks in Vietnam. Trucks that were modified by the troops, added armour plate and bristling with 30 & 50 cal machine guns for convoy protection.

I forgot to watch. I wonder if on iplayer

macafee2

Think I've seen this before BUT no mention of Stanley Hooker the maths genius who got 30% more power by re-designing the supercharger for Merlin. He was the first maths theoretican to be taken on by RR (Lord Hives) and went on to design the Derwent, Nene, Olympus engines used in Concord when he moved to Bristol and the Pegasus, used in the Harrier. He also came out of retirement to rescue the RB2ll when RR got into trouble. Oh, he also got RR to invest in Frank Whittle's wee toy. Sadly hardly anyone has heard of him. Read his excellent biog "Not much of an engineer" and YouTube talk here.

Tonight at 9pm (Friday) on channel 5.

Inside Airforce One : Secrets Of The Presidents Plane.

Spitfire and Hurricane
 

Yes it is true that during the Battle of Britain the Hurricane shot down more than the Spitfire but this does not tell the whole story. Both were essential. They could not initially manufacture the Spitfires quickly enough. The Hurricane was designed using older technology whereas the Sptfire was cutting edge. Both used the same engine the Rolls Royce Merlin which is often missed. It was a brilliant piece of design and manufacture.

As to the battle itself. The Spitfires were usually tasked with battling the fighters where as the Hurricane was usually tasked to shoot down bombers. This of course also doesn't tell the whole story as in air battles things were very confused, happened very quickly and also depended on pilot skill and a large slice of good fortune.

Perhaps the major difference between the two aircraft was how the Spitfire evolved during the war years. There were 24 marks of the Spitfire as opposed to 2 of the Hurricane. At the end of the war as a very much more capable aircraft than it was at the beginning. Faster and larger with a huge increase in general performance in height and raw power. The Hurricane although developed to operate in different roles remained very much the same. Later marks of the Spitfire were a match to the FW 190 the Hurricane never had this ability.

Long and short of the story is that we could not have survived without either one of them. They were both essential. There were of course other factors that resulted in Britain surviving the Battle of Britain. Chain home. (Radar) and the Observer Corps allowed our forces to be used in a more effective way and of course essentially who was in charge Dowding was major, major factor in how the battle went. He is often overlooked. It was all essential.

If you haven't seen it watch the film. I bought the DVD of it and it is very, very good indeed. Alas quite a few of the participants are no longer with us including the Lady pilots who delivered our aircraft. Mary Ellis flew over 1000 aircraft of all types. Amazing! There are quite a few books written about the battle some of which are excellent reads. My favourite by Tom Neil which gives a slightly different slant and conclusions. Worth a read.

Chris