Barrymagrec
pfm Member
He eat a lot of carrots too.
I vaguely remember that, then they took off from Ark Royal for the attack that crippled the Bismarck, the end of the deck was rising and falling 60 feet.The Swordfish ended it's days providing anti-submarine cover for the Atlantic and Arctic convoys. It was well suited to the role being easy to deck land in poor weather conditions. I don't however envy the crews in the open cockpits in the appalling weather they faced and the German air cover round the North Cape.
I don't know what Vinny had in mind, but there were more Hurricanes than Spitfires in service in WW2, including more ground attack versions, and they accounted for more kills, in the air and on the ground, so you could argue that they were more important military assets than Spitfires, even though they were slower and generally regarded as obsolete by the end of the war.
The outcome of the Battle of Britain could have been very different if the Spitfire and Hurricane had only had 4 guns like the Gladiator which preceded them.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight operate a 1940 vintage Spitfire. FWIW.The flyable Spitfires are from the end of the war, you can see the 20mm guns.
Hurricane production peaked earlier finished in 1944, so fewer survive
Probably one that my mum had a hand in building. With all due respect to her - obviously I love her deeply - I really wouldn’t want to trust my life to a plane that she had helped to wire up. Apparently that was her job - she got shoved into the nose as she was one of the few that could fit in.Our locally based Spitfire has just flown low overhead, mis-firing badly. Hopefully it will either clear its throat or make it back home pronto.
Someone posted that Spitfires were built in the US
The Immelmann turn, for anyone who has read Biggles, which is of course all of us. This turn relies on the fact that any propeller aircraft turns faster one way than the other because of the torque reaction of the engine..Interestingly enough a lot of German pilots rated the 109 as better than the Spitfire.They were faster and they could lose them in dive,go into a long curve and get behind to attack.
Probably one that my mum had a hand in building.
Interesting point was the Polish pilots who were especially fearless ,almost to the point of foolhardy,had a strategy of breaking up the bomber stream by diving vertically through it .I think more German aircraft were shot down by foreign pilots than by "Brylcream Boys"
As far as I can tell all Spitfires were built in the UK. 14 RCAF squadrons operated the Spitfire. Around 600 Spitfires were used by the USAAF during the war starting with Eagle squadrons transferred from the RAF.
I recall reading that Merlin (and later, Griffon) engines were built under licence by Packard (in USA).
I recall reading that Merlin (and later, Griffon) engines were built under licence by Packard (in USA).
Later the carburettor was modified to work in all attitudes.