Kind of like the VIN for an automobile. If you have the VIN (and maybe part of the frame) for a '63 split-rear-window 'vette, you're golden. It becomes a "restoration" project.
But, since we're talking about Spitfires:
Posted on 04/09/2017 5:29:47 PM PDT by DFG
If we weren’t all having problems with FR these days, that would have earned you a snarky “would you mind posting that again, I didn’t quite catch all of it the first four times.”
So I’ll leave it with a ‘thanks for the reply’.
What’s the diff between a spitfire and a mustang?
Not sure what that was. I kept clicking the POST button but nothing seemed to happen. Then I decided since nothing seemed to happen, I would modify the original reply. So I did. Still nothing when I clicked POST. Browser just sat there.
Kind of like the VIN for an automobile. If you have the VIN (and maybe part of the frame) for a '63 split-rear-window 'vette, you're golden. It becomes a "restoration" project.
But, since we're talking about Spitfires:
Almost all of the WWII movies featuring tank battles (even Patton, Battle of the Bulge, Longest Day, etc, etc, etc) use the 1960’s and 1970’s era tanks. Very, very few actually showing Grants, Shermans, or the German Panther II, Panther III-IV, or their fixed turret assault guns. One exception is Keyy’s Heroes. Since Donald Sutherland’s worn-out Sherman with loudspeakers and all is one of the stars.
Tigers, on the other hand,since they are so iconic, seem to be favorites in the movies though.
Mustangs were American planes, Spitfires were British. Both were very good air superiority fighters used mostly against the German Messerschmitt, and underwent periodic upgrades. But give me a choice of which plane I’d rather fly, and it’s the Mustang P-51D hands down.
Yes, but in the Battle of Britain movie you mention, two of the twelve flyable Spitfires were two-seaters. :^)
Wiki mentions how the two-seaters came about... none were RAF -
In the postwar era, the idea was revived by Supermarine and a number of two-seat Spitfires were built by converting old Mk IX airframes with a second "raised" cockpit featuring a bubble canopy. Ten of these TR9 variants were then sold to the Indian Air Force along with six to the Irish Air Corps, three to the Royal Netherlands Air Force and one for the Royal Egyptian Air Force.
The Polish 303rd RAF Squadron had the highest number of kills of any RAF Squadron, and they flew Hurricanes.
That was a BAD crash!
Day and night.
True, but the large number of still flying Spitfires must be due to their all metal construction.
I remember in the 60’s every old WWII airfield site had a Spitfire on display as a ‘gate guard’. I think in the 80’s someone had the bright idea of rescuing these gate guards and restoring them. They were replaced by fiberglass replicas, greatly increasing the number of airworthy Spitfires.
The wooden wings and fabric covering of the Hurricanes just couldn't stand the UK elements as gate guards, so while they had more kills, they just didn't remain around after WWII.
I personally have a good remembrance of the Spitfire (and Mosquito) watching them as a kid flying over our house at the end of meteorological flights going into Speke Airport from RAF Woodvale.
Thank you! Seems this was truly a restoration from the “ground up” then.
I’ve gottten where I open another tab and do something else for a while when I hit ‘post’, then come back to check progress.
Thank you! “The First of the Few” a movie about the making of the Spitfire beautifully done with the young David Niven as the test pilot. I recommend it to all who love aviation.
“What’s the diff between a spitfire and a mustang?”
Both used the same basic engine design and were taildraggers. The’s about it for similarities.
The Mustang was designed by North American and almost “on the shelf” as factory model NA-73, when the British Purchasing Commission approached them with a proposal to build Curtiss P-40s. Someone suggested an update of the NA-73, using later versions of the Rolls-Royce V12 Merlin engine; till then, the 73 had shown lackluster performance with its originally installed Allison V1710 engine. USAAF had investigated its potential as a ground-attack machine (A-36) but remained unimpressed.
The British suggested installation of the Merlin engine in the P-51; with the use of higher octane avgas, and different turbochargers, performance potential was greatly improved.
As built in series production, the P-51 (USAAF official nomenclature for the Mustang) used an advanced airfoil shape exploiting the latest findings from laminar-flow research: this gave it a top speed about 70 mph faster than early Spitfires, and some three times the range.
P-51s carried heavier armament: first four, later six 50 cal AN/M2 machine guns firing at the rate of some 1100 rds/min each. Spitfires of early WWII were armed with eight British-made Browning guns in 303 British caliber. Theoretically, the 50 cal outranged the 303, but in action, engagement ranges were not much different, as human ability to hit a moving target from a moving platform in aerial combat proved the limiting factor. Those were the days before lead-computing gunsights or fire-control computers.
The Spitfire earned a huge reputation from all who flew it, and remained a favorite, becoming the only British fighter produced throughout the war, and the most-produced Allied fighter, period. It received upgrades many times in many ways, including much heavier armament, to include 20mm cannon.
Designed less that six years after the Spitfire, the P-51 outperformed it in many respects, but was a tricky aircraft to fly: more were lost to landing mishaps than to hostile fire. Its small airframe could hold only a small ammunition reserve: 12-14 seconds continuous fire. It succeeded in the ETO only because extreme modifications were undertaken, adding extra internal fuel tanks which put the center of gravity outside safe limits (causing fatal loss of control to the unwary), and by using drop tanks. Even so, it just barely had sufficient range to accompany USAAF bombers to their max-range targets.
Once B-29 operations began in earnest against Japan, the P-51 was completely outclassed, incapable of escorting the big bombers to the Home Islands from the bases then held. Only after Iwo Jima and Okinawa were taken could any USAAF fighters join the fight. Fortunately for US bomber crews, Japanese air defenses were neither as intense nor as organized as those over Nazi Germany.
All landings in taildragger aircraft demand the utmost attention from the pilot.
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