# Spitfire vs Messerschmitt



## Royzee617 (Feb 6, 2008)

By way of showing you that excellent documentaries CAN be made here is SL Paul Day of the RAF BBMF giving his comments on the BoB rivals the Spit and 109. Truly excellent and yet so simple.

Spitfire vs Messerschmitt - LiveVideo.com

if this don't crank your interest then I'm Adolf's uncle!


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## sunny91 (Feb 6, 2008)

Good post Roy, by the way have you download the movie fighter pilot?

Sunny


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## Royzee617 (Feb 6, 2008)

Oops, got a bit distracted, willl have a bash tonite.


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## Royzee617 (Feb 11, 2008)

Dunno how many of you have popped over to view this vid.... but I strongly suggest you do as I mean it, it really is top notch. Even I learned a few things from it and I thought I knew it all... you know me the way I moan on about how crap most plane vids on TV are but this clip really is the exception. Surprised no one has asked me to op it up here as an mp4... worth several repeat watches IMHO.


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## TheIronMaiden (Feb 14, 2008)

Definetly a great video. Very interesting.


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## Wayne Little (Feb 15, 2008)

8) mate, thanks.


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## Timnaldo (Mar 13, 2008)

I like Paul Day. That typical Brittish Officer "style". Cool, subjective, and funny without ever smiling just once.


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## renrich (Mar 13, 2008)

Excellent video. I saw a BF109 up close at the Cavanaugh air museum in Addison, Texas. Beautiful airplane, purposeful and deadly looking. I could not get in it, of course, but looking at it I thought the visibility must be horrible and the pilots must have had to be very small. Lindberg said of the early Corsair that the visibility was no worse than that of the Spirit of St Louis. Wonder what he would have said about the BF? Their pilots worked wonders considering their ability to see out of the airplane.


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## timshatz (Mar 13, 2008)

Good vid. First time I've seen the breech of the cannon in the cockpit. Didn't know that was a design "feature". Must've been all sorts of noisy when that thing started pumping out shells.


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## magnu (Mar 13, 2008)

I remember seeing this as part of a BBC series on the BOB to mark the 60th anniversary After seeing the inside of the 109s cockpit and how poor the rear visibility was I wondered if this was one of the factors that prompted the development of the finger four formation


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## pbfoot (Mar 13, 2008)

They are both really cramped not at all made for anyone of size , both chafe on my shoulders and visibility is crap to the rear of both of them with a slight advantage to the spit with the bulged canopy


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## HoHun (Mar 13, 2008)

Hi Royzee,

>By way of showing you that excellent documentaries CAN be made here is SL Paul Day of the RAF BBMF giving his comments on the BoB rivals the Spit and 109.

Wonderful! 
 
The artificial horizon of the Me 109 Paul Day praises actually doubles as "needle-and-ball" indicator so that you can check both spatial orientation and aircraft coordination at a single glance.

(I'm sure Paul Day knew that well, but decided not to mention in his concise commentary as it's a rather technical detail.)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)


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## renrich (Mar 14, 2008)

I realise that men in the 30s were on average smaller than they are now and probably men in Europe were slightly shorter than men in the US when the WW2 fighters were designed. The only fighter in the US that I am aware of as having a small cockpit was the P39. it was designed for a pilot no more than 5 foot, 8 inches tall. In contrast, although the Corsair cockpit was not exceptionally large, the distance from the seat to the controls was large because the chief test pilot, Boone Guyton, was 6 ft 4in tall. In his book, "Whistling Death" he describes flying a Zero and he could not close the canopy. I doubt he would fit in a 109 or Spit either.


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