Battle of Britain: Turn Around Time

On a Spitfire, to do the daily inspection and put the plane to sleep at night, you had eight panels off the top of the wings, eight panels underneath the wings; and when you rearmed it , you had an additional four flaps covering the underside of the ammunition tanks. Now, in the hurricane, you only had five panels altogether, one each covering four guns and one covering the ammunition tanks. They were much much easier to maintain, but the Hurricane couldn't be armed as quick as a spitfire, because in the Hurricane you didn't take the ammunition tanks out and put a full one in, you had to put the belt of ammunition in the tank whilst it was in the aeroplane. But from the point of view of maintenance, the Hurricane was a much much easier plane. Another thing with the Hurricane, you could kneel on top of the wing and do all the maintenance. On a Spitfire, you couldn't, you had to get on your knees on the wet grass and take all these panels off to do maintenance.

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