Quote:
Originally Posted by stuartj
Great CGI. I say it every time a Spit thread comes up, but I think its the most elegant machine ever conceived. The 109 has its own beauty, like a 911, function over form. But the Spitfire is simply a beautiful machine.
Now, as a boyhood Spitfire nerd, I hope they have their facts right....if thats the Battle of Britain era (ie they are fighting over England, and as it turns Ireland) the Spitfire carried 8xBrowning .303, not the 20mm cannon depicted.......IIRC.
The late 60's "Battle of Britain" is still the film. And there is a recent DVD version which contains a "making of" documentary which is even better than the film.
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I wasn't specifically a boyhood "Spitfire nerd" so much as and all-around WWII aircraft nerd. And, yes, you remember correctly - the early Mark I had the eight .303's; the 20mm cannons were not fitted until the much later Mark
VB.
There was a great deal of debate as to which approach was more effective - the swarming mass of bullets form eight .30 or .50 caliber machine guns, or the big thumping hits from the 20mm cannons. Rate of fire was much lower with the cannons, and there were only two firing, so they kind of favored the "marksmen" who got close and fired sparingly.
The Spitfire was a fantastic airplane, and a really fun one to study. IIRC, it went through 20-odd variations, or "marks". The Mark IX was considered the "definitive" Spitfire, the perfect balance of size, power, weight, maneuverability, and firepower. Later marks did nothing but get bigger and heavier and, finally, fitted the Griffon engine that well and truly ruined it.
That big old Griffon, in addition to being significantly heavier, turned the "wrong" way - opposite of the Merlin. With all the torque those motors produce, and all the inertia in that massive prop, pilots had to intuitively stomp on the right rudder pedal whenever they firewalled it. Imagine if the new airplane suddenly demanded that intuition be forgotten, and the
other pedal be pressed when hitting the power, especially under the stress of battle. Pilots who cut their teeth on earlier marks hated them.
Really, in a number of ways, the Spitfire mimicked the development progression of our beloved 911's. Simple, light, balanced, and effective in their earlier marks, they gave all that up for speed in their later marks. The got heavy and ungainly, and pilots yearned for the earlier "pilots' airplanes".