So many questions, here are my responses.
Any details on the 'only headrest armour' bit? I've not heard that before, but considering the complications involved in fitting the lower plates (pipe lines etc.) I could see that being a short-term expediency.
That is pretty much correct. I researched this along time ago on the forums in WW2 online. Hurricanes had their front armour on the production line and retrofitted by mid 39. Spitfires were a little latter with the first 310 spits being devoid of front armour but probably retrofitted by Feb 1940. So for the BoB both aircraft would have front armour. For the addition of rear armour all, Hurricanes from Feb 22 1940 were built with it from the factory and all those in the field were retrofitted with it by May 10 1940. The Spifire I , is a bit more complicated ,we know 100 sets of rear armour are manufactured by April 10 1940, but without the proper pipes and fittings to install them. By April 14 it is decided to order rear armour plating to fit out all Spit 1s. My source for most of this information is the book "Knights of the Skies" , by Michael C Fox. . This book is very well researched and footnoted usually with a lot of primary source documents such as A&AEE . It does not mention any rear armour being added to Spitfire Is on the production line. I have another secondary source that states that Spit Is armour was fitted in the field and was only introduced on the production line for Spit IIs. The estimated time required to add rear armour plate to one Spitfire I was initially 30 man hours, with the hopes that as crews became experianced that the time required would be reduced to only 15 man hours/plane. This was all a consequence of Air Ministry ect decisons that were fearful of slowing down Spitfire production to introduce modifications. The net result was that there was almost never enough time to fully install the rear armour plate once the BoB began and especially after losses began to occur.
The BoB was won by pilots not aircraft and the pilots of Hurricanes had a much higher chance of ending in the guinea pig club for many reasons.
I enjoy your colorful metaphors, but without evidence and proof that is all they are. Show me some stats that indicate Hurricane pilots, in proportion to their numbers, were burned more than Spitfire pilots and I will humbly eat crow.
The Hurricane did shoot down most of the enemy aircraft, mainly because it composed the bulk of the RAF defending British skies. I don't have the statistics here, but I believe that the aircraft shot down and their own losses were not in proportion to the number in operation. Both statistics favour the Spitfire.
I have already posted hurricane and spitfire losses for the battle that disprove this.
As far as easy to fly, are we talking about the difference between easy and really easy
The Hurricane had a wider track under carriage and had much better harmony of controls. The Spitfire became difficult to fly at high speed as the ailerons became quite heavy, yet the elevator was very light which could lead to accidental high speed stalls.
From using fabric ailerons, or from wing warping?
The former was solved by retrofitting metal ailerons - not sure if that was for the BoB.
The latter happened at a speed the Hurricane could not reach.
The loss of aileron control was caused by both , however there was a 41% loss of aileron effectiveness due to wing twist at 390 ASI, a speed that was within the dive limits of the Hurricane I.
On the subject of ease of use ... one thing I've stumbled upon that you never see mentioned anywhere is the much higher accident rate of the Hurricane due to the fuel system -- which requires the pilot to switch between the three tanks.
eg: in 1941 both types had about 300,000 flying hours and the Hurricane had 80 accidents (relating to the fuel system) and the Spitfire had 8.
Interesting and explainable. By 1941 you have lots of Hurricane IIs flying around with either two wing mounted drop tanks or two fixed long range tanks. I have got a Hurricane II manual and the three tank system is reasonably simple. The front reserve tank is gravity fed and non pressurized, used for low level taking off or landing, the wing tanks are for combat and can be pressurized for higher altitudes. Switching between them is by use of a fuel cock switch. Using the drop tanks or the fixed underwing tanks is a lot more complex, and as these were new features in 41, I would expect some problems. I do not think that I have ever seen a picture of a Spit 1 or 2 with a droptank, but I know the Spit V had the ability for a single one. By 1941 the Hurricane is being used over seas and on long range ferrying missions ect, so I would expect more losses due to errors in fuel management.