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Price in currency doesn't mean a great deal in a country that is bankrupt.
The numbers don't seem right anyway. The actual price paid for a Mk I Spitfire in 1940 was £6033, which works out as around 75000RM.
AFAIK 1941 exchange rate pound:RM was near 1:80 (crossing with US $, obv. wasn't a exchange rate form pound and RM)
Its challenging to get figures that are anywhere near accurate for a wartime period, especially when one country is practically bankrupt. The exchange rate I used was 1:5 for £ -> $ and then 1:2.5 for $ -> RM from 1940.
Its challenging to get figures that are anywhere near accurate for a wartime period, especially when one country is practically bankrupt. The exchange rate I used was 1:5 for £ -> $ and then 1:2.5 for $ -> RM from 1940.
But who has the man-hours available for a wingtip to wingtip of the 109,the 190, the 51, and the Spit 9?
Here is some interesting info from a book of mine about the Hellcat production. "The Navy went on record saying that Grumman produced more pounds of airframe per taxpayer dollars than any other company in the fighter business." The Hellcat original price was $50000 exclusive of Government Furnished Equipment. By the end of the production run the price had been cut to $35000. There was a contest between Grumman and North American(building P51s) and when in March of 1945 Grumman set a record and beat NA, the news was announced over loudspeakers in the factory.
"..It has been reported that the Bf 109 took one-third the man hours to construct as the Spitfire..."
I believe the Germans prepared a report in 1941 saying that the 109 cost 15,000 RM to build, and that the Spitfire, if built in Germany, would cost 12,500 RM.
The "one-third man hours" for the 109 falls in to this category. It's based on a January 1940 figure for the Spitfire of 15,000 man hours, compared to a 1942 figure for the 109.
(bear in mind the 109 was an older design than the Spitfire and entered production earlier, so it was further along in the process.)
That would be particularely interesting, Hop. Can You quote or link the report?
In contrast, Spitfire factories produced pretty much the same airframe throughout the war, with the same solutions. The biggest 'redesign' was replacing dome rivets with flush rivets on the fuselage.
Yes, I'm aware of the ease of gondolas, K. What turns me against the gondolas is the 'pendulum effect' of the inertia of weight put so far outboard of the wings, which made the G-series with the wing guns so slow in the roll. Speed suffered only slightly.