Supermarine Spitfire

cheddar cheese · Apr 5, 2004

so it worked at much higher altitude

its max ceiling isnt much more thn the hurri or the tiffy though

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 11, 2004

yes but you find that the higher you get, the more sluggish it becomes..........

cheddar cheese · Apr 20, 2004

hmmmm....

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 20, 2004

it will perform better at about 20,000ft for most fighters..................

Maestro · Apr 20, 2004

plan_D said:
32 Squadrons of Hurricane and 11 Squadrons of Spitfire in the BoB. The Spitfire was a better fighter, and it was just as good at interception of bombers as the Hurricane. The reason Spitfires were told to go after the fighters was because they were better than the Hurricanes in the job.
In the BoB the Spitfire is over-rated but overall it was the best Britain had as a fighter. And it was brilliant, definately the best dog-figther of the war. The Hurricane was more important in the BoB and they shot down more, also, they still went on to be ground attack aircraft which they did well.

The Spitfire was fluent, delicate graceful and deadly. The Hurricane was the 'working mans hero', strong, powerful and just mean. It was the meat on the bone..

Plan_D is right.

I would add that the Spit got better after the BoB. (When they created the Mk. V and the Mk. IX.) In a book I have at home, the writer interviewed a pilot that flew both Spitfire Mk. IX and P-51 Mustang. He said that the Mk. IX was as good as the Mustang. The only difference was that the P-51 had a greater range than the Mk. IX and the Mk. IX was more powerful. (Two 20 mm canons and four Browning 303 machine guns for the Spit compared to six Browning 303 machine guns for the Mustang.)

plan_D · Apr 21, 2004

Of course, as the war went on they became better and better, the Spitfire of which ever mark could match up to anything the Luftwaffe threw at it, unfortunately for the Hurricane it could not.

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 21, 2004

you gotta admit it was better in the early years....................

plan_D · Apr 22, 2004

The Hurricane was easier to produce. A Hurricane Mk. I against a Spitfire Mk. I the Spitfire would come out on top unless it had an inferior pilot. I'm not saying the Hurricane was a bad plane because it was a great plane but it wasn't as good as the Spitfire.

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 22, 2004

had more appeal though, i think i would rather fly a hurricane to a spit..........

Maestro · Apr 22, 2004

plan_D said:
The Hurricane was easier to produce. A Hurricane Mk. I against a Spitfire Mk. I the Spitfire would come out on top unless it had an inferior pilot. I'm not saying the Hurricane was a bad plane because it was a great plane but it wasn't as good as the Spitfire.

Once again, I have to agree with Plan_D.

If ever I had the choice between flying a Hurricane or a Spitfire, I would chose the Spitfire any day.

Gemhorse · Apr 22, 2004

My feeling is the Hurricane could take punishment better, and tackled the bombers while the Spitfires sorted out the fighters, in the BoB.- They kept developing the Spitfire because of it's superb dogfighting ability, some models were better at low altitude, others at higher. Probably not until they installed the Griffon did they really have an all-rounder, my personal favourite being the Mk.XIV., 2050hp, 2x 20mm cannon, 4x.50 cal machine guns and a rate of climb of + 5000 fpm and 448mph. The early Mustang was faster than the then model of Spitfire [ Mk.V @ 350mph' and the first real multi-role Spitfire], to 375mph for the 'Stang, but having the Allison and not being supercharged, it was useless at height and was far better doing low level work - They never had .303's, but 4x.50 and 4x.30's. It wasn't until Nov. 1942 - June 1943 that they installed the Packard Merlin XX [same as Merlin 61] that the Mustang B achieved 450mph @ 29,000ft , after trying different combos on 4 Mustangs. After this, the Mustang was superior to Fw190's Me109's in dive turns. With the advent of extra fuel tanks, both the Spitfire Mustang benefited with greater range, the Mustang in particular. - With the Tempest, it's elliptical wing shape was much thinner than the Typhoon, as with the Mustang, the later models had a laminar flow wing which gave far less drag - The final Spitfire, the Spiteful, had laminar flow wings, but by then everything was going jet and it wasn't produced in number.

Maestro · Apr 22, 2004

Gemhorse said:
They never had .303's, but 4x.50 and 4x.30's.

May be you're right concerning the 303s, but I never heard about a Mustang with 8 machine guns.

I heard about the Mustang having 6 Browning machine guns, or an other type with 4 machine guns. I even heard about a Mustang III (the British version of the P-51) with 20 mm cannons. (I think this one was a reconnaissance plane.)

May be I'm wrong, but I never heard about a Mustang with 8 machine guns. (I must say that I don't know American planes very much.)

GermansRGeniuses · Apr 23, 2004

the British mustang Mk1 was an armed photo recce plane with 6 .303 brownings in the wings and two .50s under the engine in the nose (loading was done via clips)

plan_D · Apr 23, 2004

The Hurricane was sent after the bombers because it was inferior to the Spitfire in taking on the 109s, although it would be stupid to try and deny Hurricanes could tangle with 109s since they did on several occasions and came out on top.

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 23, 2004

i still prefer the hurricane to the spit....................

Maestro · Apr 23, 2004

GermansRGeniuses said:
the British mustang Mk1 was an armed photo recce plane with 6 .303 brownings in the wings and two .50s under the engine in the nose (loading was done via clips)

Finaly, I think I was right concerning the Mustang armed with 303s. But I was wrong concerning the number of guns.

Thank you for pointing it out, mate.

GermansRGeniuses · Apr 23, 2004

no problem Herr Maestro! well anyway, concerning spits (ive decided to make close to 100% of my posts meaningful today) were any of the (Beautiful) bubble canopied ones used in WWII or were they too late? (I think they were Mk.XVI on but im not sure since i know VERY little about the spit, any help would be great. Danke in advance)

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 24, 2004

the Mk.XIV and XVI both had buble canopies and were both used, the XIV was "armed" with the griffon engine.................

Gemhorse · Apr 24, 2004

I'm very sure the Mustang 1's had 2x .5 under the nose, 1x .5 in each wing and 2x .3 in each wing.- .30 is an American calibre, .303 British - Browning handled them all. What made this low-level Mustang lethal was the .5 ammo; the M2 Ball Cartridge fired a 700 grain bullet @ 2810 fps, the armour-piercing M2, Tracer M10, Incendiary M1 and AP/Incendiary rounds, all at 800 rpm, per barrel. In Oct. 1943, they developed AP/Incendiary/Tracer rounds. The earlier Mustangs also did have a quad .5 set-up in the wings and also quad 20mm's, but the P51-D version had an improved Browning MG-53-2 set-up of 3x.5's in each wing, all 6 producing 80 rounds a second...

the lancaster kicks ass · Apr 24, 2004

very impressive..................

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