Simviation Forums

Watched a show on Wings TV about the Battle
of Britian, and the role the Spitfires played.
It was a great aircraft, I didn't know it had
8 guns. Bound to hit something!!
After watching the show I thought it could
slice, dice, prevent hair loss, make my home
smell better, play the hits of the 70's, cook
a chicken in 15 minutes, straighten up my
closet, help with my credit card debts, and
if it could make biscuits, I'd kick Kimber out
and marry one!!!

Just kidding Ozzy, the show was GREAT!!

X
   

As great as the Spitfire was I still prefer the Hurricane.

It was a steadier gun platform (the Spit would wobble all over the place when the guns were firing) and it could actually turn in a tighter circle.

On the show they stated that the Hurricane was
better aginist the bombers at lower altitudes,
and shot down 5/7 of the planes over England!!
Up high the Spit's were King!!,

Both the Spitfire and the Hurricane were and are magnificent aircraft.
The Hurricane had more bomber kills than the Spitfire as the Spitfires tended to be used to chase off the 109s, and the Hurricane could take the pounding and still take out the bombers, no matter how good the enemies gunners were.
Quite frankly without these two magnificent aircraft Britain would surely have lost.
But yeah I love the Spitfire, and my wife knows its the only potential threat to our marriage, she'll come home and find me in bed with one

Ozzy

In the red corner - OZZY 72!!

In the blue corner - WHITEY!!

Ding Ding, seconds out, round 27!!

Well done X, you've started them off again.

Will

Nah Will, Whitey and myself are working on a joint project at the moment, so no arguing allowed. Meanwhile if anyone else says anything bad about the Spitfire I will of course be obliged to come around and cover their house in marmalade, that reminds me I must pop over to see Ken with Fozzer

I was fair too...I stated the good points of both aircraft.

I only like the Hurri better because it was safer to fly...LOL.  You could get away with a mistake that allowed a 109 a little burst at you while that'd be you dead in a Spit... ...guess I just like the idea of slipping up and getting away with it.

Can anyone join in?  ;)
I like both the Hurricane & Spitfire so I suppose I'm neutral. I must say that although there were less of them, the Spitfire took all the glory in the BoB. I suppose it was so beautiful it caught the imagination of the press & public. This seems a shame to me. Both types were originally private ventures, developed without a contract so it was lucky for us their designers & manufacturers were prepared to invest their own time & money in the projects. This is more than could be said for the government at the time.

I read somewhere that a Luftwaffe fighter pilot wouldn't admit to being shot down by a Hurricane. It didn't sound quite so bad if he said it was a Spit. There's a lot made of the fact that the Hurricane could turn tighter the Spitfire but, according to Geoffrey Wellum in "First Light", the Spitfire could out-turn a Bf 109E which is all that mattered.  Pilots of both types said they preferred them & wouldn't swap for anything - which is just as well really.  ::)

I think it boils down to the training

An aircraft in the hands of a trained pilot can be a deadly machine. Both the Spitfire & Hurricanes were excellent aircraft, but a pilot trained especially for the spitfire might not be as good in a hurricane

Might be wrong, but my 2 cents anyway

Andrew;

You are right, as this applys to anything we do,
even in FS, what we know best we do best!!
On the TV show they stated that some pilots
had as little as two weeks training before combat!!
That would be scarey!!!

X

How many times have we had this discussion, Whitey, Hagar, Hawker, Ozzy, Andrew etc.

Doesn't matter, I still love it. I'm at work and need a good 'discussion' post to kill a few hours......lol

My opinions, although wel enough known by the regs:

I personally prefer the Hurricane as a fighter, simply because of that tight turn. It suits my fighting style. Also, it's tue it could take more of a pounding.
There are many stories of Hurri's coming home, torn to shreds, but when they took a good look, there was liitle structural damage and little damage to controls etc. Just torn canvas.
Also it had wider spaced wheels for easier landings (especially for all those 'short timer pilots').

The Spitfire, of course had the power the speed and the altitude. And they say the manoevrability (although I consider turn circle a large aspect of manoevrability).
It was certainly a much 'nicer looking' plane (almost as beautiful as a P40.......lol). So I see how it was the 'pet' of the media and the public.

But when all is said and done, they both did

I seriously doubt it.  The basic P-40 design was sturdy, but not as good a fighter as the Hurricane and Spit.

About 700 P-40F and L models were made with Merlins...

[quote]

Of course, if a few hundred P40's had been fitted with super-charged Merlins, the Battle would only have lasted half as long.

[quote]I seriously doubt it.

Pilots would adapt to any aircraft when they needed to...look at this page:  http://home.flevonet.nl/~beukema/hurricane.htm

Stanford Tuck wasn't impressed at the look of his Hurri after his Spits, but I guess he wasn't complaining later on...LOL.

But I have the utmost respect for te Spitfire and it has a soft place in my heart...as it probsbly does for every British person who's seen one flying and heard the Merlin purring away... ...yep, the Spitfire sounds better than the Hurri!