Nice. We have some old snaps shots of my dad with his RAF buddies.
He told us some great stories
Now, a question: I've heard the British Lancaster bomber and the US Mustang fighter used the same Rolls Merlin engine.
Did the Spitfire also use that engine, or something different?
I remember seeing some documentary on some WWII British fighter aircraft, the body was mostly wood, was this the fighter, could some one confirm this for me.
I owned seven different Spitfires.
Raced one for years in F-Production then HSR. Ranged from a Mark 1 through a couple 1500s
But mine were originally built by British Leyland.
This pic is not mine, but mine looked like this only British Racing Green
The real genius of the design, IMHO, was that it was as a SHORT RANGE air defense fighter. It was meant to defend the skies over Britain, period..recognizing that the Germans would have to fly there, and back. Had they attempted to increase range, with large fuel tanks, and more weight it would have completely changed the performance envelope of the plane.
FYI: The first designs of what became the Spitfire were floatplanes designed for air racing in the Schneider Trophy competition. From 1927-37, the Submarine Aircraft Company designer, R J Mitchell, worked to create smooth airflow over ever thinner wings for greater speed. Following his death in 1937, his design was still the starting point for the successive models/marks.
I believe that the early Spitfire Marks had hand-cranked landing gear like many of its contemporaries, now that is a task to build the arms!
Later models had extended ranges and different armament. Almost everybody except the US went for cannons over machine-guns (except for P39) while the US saw 50cal as best for larger capacity. Don’t know if there was ever a study on that decision post-war.
I liked my ‘56 TR3 better than the cute little Spitfire.
Spitfire low pass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmDMRSLZqNU
Potty mouth - not safe for work or kids.
I thought you were referring to the plane.
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