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Posted on 01/26/2005 9:31:54 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Although the relative merits of the two World War II aircraft continue to be debated, the dissimilar stablemates complemented one another in combat and together saved a country.  Which is better, the Supermarine Spitfire or the Hawker Hurricane? That question has been asked by pilots, historians and air enthusiasts since 1940. It does not have a definitive answer, however, each aircraft had its strong points and its disadvantages. Although both aircraft played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain they could not have been more different from one another. Each was created under a completely different set of circumstances and came from totally different backgrounds and antecedents. The Spitfire owed its famous graceful lines and speed to its early ancestors, evolving as a fighter from a series of extremely successful racing seaplanes that were designed in the 1920s--and 1930s. All of those racers were built by the firm of Supermarine Ltd. and were designed by one man--Reginald J. Mitchell. The innovative Mitchell has been called one of the most brilliant designers Britain has ever produced. His designs really were ahead of their time. In 1925, when he began building racing airplanes, streamlining was considered more a theoretical exercise than an engineering possibility. But Mitchell made engineering theories more than just possibilities; he turned them into brilliant successes.  Reginald J. Mitchell Mitchell's efforts at streamlining produced aircraft that were not only graceful but also among the fastest in the world. In 1927, his S.5 racer won the Schneider Trophy with a speed of 281.65 mph. Four years later, his elegant S.6B captured the Schneider Trophy outright for Britain with a speed of 340.08. Later, on September 29, 1931, his S.6B, fitted with a special "Sprint" engine with its horsepower upgraded to 2,550, pushed the world speed record to 407.5 mph.  Supermarine S.5 During that time, Britain's Air Ministry began looking for a replacement for the Royal Air Force's (RAF) standard fighters, the Bristol Bulldog and Gloster Gladiator, both of which were biplanes. Knowing he had the experience and the reputation he acquired by designing his Schneider Trophy winners going for him, Mitchell decided to make a bid for the Air Ministry's contract to design this new fighter. The Supermarine firm had been taken over by the industrial giant Vickers by this time; the new corporation was known as Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd.  Supermarine F.7/30 The first prototype of the aircraft that would become known as the Spitfire was an odd-looking affair. Officially designated the F.7/30, it was a gull-winged monoplane with an open cockpit and spatted undercarriage. It looked more like a German Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber than the Battle of Britain fighter. Mitchell was not satisfied with his F.7/30 for a number of reasons. For one thing, it was underpowered--its Rolls-Royce Goshawk II engine gave it a speed of only 238 mph. So he began to experiment. He added a larger engine, enclosed the cockpit, and gave his new fighter a retractable undercarriage with smaller, thinner wings. These thin, elliptically shaped wings would become the fighter's most recognizable feature. Mitchell continued to modify his design in 1933 and 1934. The larger engine he had in mind was supplied by Rolls-Royce--a new, 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled power plant called simply the PV-12. Rolls-Royce would rename this engine the Merlin--a name that would become legend among aircraft power plants. The new fighter, now designated the F.10/35, developed into a low-wing interceptor with retractable undercarriage, flaps, enclosed cockpit, and oxygen for the pilot. The Merlin engine promised to give it all the speed Mitchell wanted and the Air Ministry would require. For armament, he gave his fighter four wing-mounted .303-caliber machine guns. Air Vice Marshal Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding, Air Member for Supply and Research, had been in charge of the RAF's technical development since 1930. He was favorably impressed by Mitchell's F.10/35 except for one item-he wanted eight machine guns. Recent tests had shown that the minimum firepower needed to shoot down an enemy bomber was six or, preferably, eight guns, each capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute. With that armament, it was estimated that a pilot would need only two seconds to destroy an enemy bomber in the air-the time during which a fighter pilot would be able to keep the enemy in his sights, it was thought.  Dowding had the future in mind. He knew that the German Luftwaffe was expanding and that Adolf Hitler's ambition would probably lead to an armed conflict between Britain and Germany. His farsightedness would pay off eight years later, in 1940, when he was chief of RAF Fighter Command.  Because of his aircraft's elliptical wings, Mitchell was able to fit four Browning .303 caliber machine guns into each wing without increasing drag or radically altering the design. With that armament, along with the RollsRoyce Merlin engine and the other features he had designed, Mitchell knew that his fighter would be a match for any aircraft the Luftwaffe might produce. Now all he had to do was convince the Air Ministry.  Mitchell's fighter first took to the air on March 5, 1936. It had been given a name-the Spitfire-by Vickers and made official by the Air Ministry. (Mitchell himself did not like the name very much; he called it "a bloody silly name.") This Spitfire was flown by J. "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers and Supermarine, out of the Eastleigh airport in Hampshire. It was unarmed and fitted with a fixed-pitch wooden propeller. After landing from his test flight, Summers told his ground crew, "I don't want anything touched." Although some alterations would be made, he realized from just one flight that the Spitfire was an outstanding fighter.  Following some persuasive arguments from Air Vice Marshal Dowding, the Air Ministry agreed with Summers' assessment. With a maximum speed of 342 mph, the plane was classed as the fastest military aircraft in the world. Less than three months after Summers' test flight, on June 3, 1936, a contract was placed with Supermarine for 300 Spitfires. Six hundred more were ordered the next year. By the time Britain went to war with Germany on September 3, 1939, the war that Air Vice Marshal Dowding had foreseen, 2,160 Spitfires were on order for the RAF. But R.J. Mitchell never lived to see the success of his creation. In 1937, at the age of 42, he died of cancer.  Sir Sidney Camm Although the Spitfire was the product of one man's imagination, the Hawker Hurricane did not owe its origins to any single individual. It was the result of an evolutionary process that began with the fabric-covered biplanes of World War I. Revolutionary for its time-it was the RAF's first monoplane fighter and its first fighter to exceed 300 mph-the Hurricane was still a wood-and-fabric airplane. It was once referred to as "a halfway house between the old biplanes and the new Spitfires." Sidney Camm, Hawker Aircraft's chief designer, was the leading force behind the Hurricane's development. In the early 1930s, when the Air Ministry began looking to replace its biplanes with a more modem fighter, Camm already had a design for what he called his Fury monoplane, a modification of the graceful and highly maneuverable Fury biplane. The Fury was the direct descendant of Sopwith's Pup, Triplane, Camel, Dolphin and Snipe-fighters of World War I. Hawker Aircraft Ltd. had begun its life as Sopwith Ltd.  RollsRoyce's PV-12 (Merlin) Apart from the fact that the Hurricane was a monoplane, its major differences from the Fury were its power plant and armament. The Fury was powered by the Rolls-Royce Kestrel, which gave it a maximum speed of 184 mph. But the Kestrel was much too small for the Hurricane. When Camm heard about RollsRoyce's PV-12 engine, the Merlin, he modified his new monoplane to accommodate it.
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Evening stand watie.
Free Dixie
Evening Grzegorz 246.
Like the Polish National markings. :-)
Evening CT.
He PO'd the french and Churchill when he refused to send more fighters to the losing battle in france. He had the guts to make the call and stick with it though.
Evening ms_68.
Thanks for mentioning the Kosciuszko Squadron. One of the best of the fighter squadrons in the RAF during the Battle of Britain.
First guy backed up real fast?
Always seems to be the right man at the right time to keep us and England going just a bit longer.
[Will tonight be the night I here something from my Ms Snip???? The faithful wait.]
LOL!
Thanks ms_68 for telling us about Capt.Merian Cooper. Proves that you can't keep a good man down.
Ahhhh . . . she's back!
FWIW, I envy the rigors of your business; there's compassion in your words. And where's "Daddy Warbucks" during all this? ;^)
Would that that be the "big man" upstairs? ;^)
You gotta see this.
Imperial Leather (LOL!!)
email
Posted on 01/27/2005 4:02:14 PM CST by nuconvert
http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1330086/posts
I had a Monogram 1/35th scale model of the Hurricane with the twin 40's
Click the pic and select "View WMV file" on the page.
If memory serves there was a movie made about Reginald J. Mitchell and how he built the Spitfire...David Niven starred I believe.
Evening Phil Dragoo.
Thanks so much for the treasure trove of information today.
The King Kong background is especially interesting.
I'm looking for "Daddy Warbucks" too. :-)
He sure does seem to be keeping an eye on us doesn't He?
LOL! You can't make this stuff up.
Yeah saw those, I'd sure hate to be stuck with the repair bill.
I LOVE GOOGLE
Spitfire (AKA The First of the Few) (1942)
http://www.neoseeker.com/Movies/Products/the_first_of_the_few/
This fictionalized biopic tells the story of R.J. Mitchell (Leslie Howard), the British aviator who developed the Spitfire--an ace fighter plane, and Geoffrey Crisp (David Niven, who was granted military leave to star in the film), his daring test pilot who tells the tale in flashback. After winning numerous accolades for his achievements in designing monoplanes, Mitchell is convinced that he must design a new type of fighter plane after Hitler's ascend to power--the result was the titular craft that helped Britain defend its skies. Sadly, director/star Howard was killed after being shot down by German forces while returning home from a diplomatic mission prior to the film's release. Incidentally, SPITFIRE was viewed as a great boost to Britain's morale during wartime.
Movie Details
Cast:
David Niven
Leslie Howard
Roland Culver
Derrick De Marney
Rosamund John
Anne Firth
(note also available form Amazon..goes without saying)
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