On Monday 08 March 2004 13:21, David Megginson wrote: > Vivian Meazza wrote: > > That could be useful. Could you let me have a copy? > > I'll send it via private e-mail. Also, for anyone interested in the > Hurricane (the Spitfire's weaker and lesser known sibling, but also the > plane that did the real bulk of the fighting in the Battle of Britain), > here is a link to John Deakin's AvWeb articles on flying one for the > Commemorative Airforce: > > http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/185674-1.html > http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/185849-1.html > > > All the best, > > > David
It's one of the aeronautical curiosities of WW2 that the Spitfire ended up as one of the most 'famous' a/c of that time. Certainly, it was an excellent a/c but as you say, it's contribution in the BoB, where it was only present in very small numbers, was far out-weighed by the Hurricane. Infact, some of the most notable exploits by Spitfires were in the field of PR, both high and low-level. In the later stages of WW2 the Typhoon & Tempest became more significant (even though they were pressed into service while still in development - hence the early & deserved reputation for structural & reliability problems) as the role switched from defense to offense - the Spitfire wasn't suited for ground attack and it wasn't fast enough to deal with the V1s either. Don't anyone get me wrong - as I said, it's an excellent a/c, but it's fame is out of proportion to it's contribution. An example of the power of propaganda, perhaps... LeeE _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
