Aircraft Appreciation thread #3 - Beautiful Aircraft!

[Pensioner]

Much as I like the Bf 108, a Bf 109 it is not ...

So, is it true the C.A.F. provided more Spitfires for "B.o.B." than the UK government could scrape up? Or is that an urban legend?

I hadn't heard about that, but it sounds quite plausible. Don't forget that the UK government is not in the business of keeping fleets of warbirds in the air, apart from the likes of the BoB memorial flight that Pen mentioned. Most warbirds are the preserve of private organisations and individuals.

Most of the Spitfires in BoB were cannon-armed, which would have ruled them out straight away on accuracy grounds (for me), as hardly any Spitfires at that time had cannons.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_ ... Production

As I understand it the BoB memorable flight has only one Spitfire that flew in the battle, a 1A. This machine was the one that took a young woman on a circuit of the airfield when she was hanging on to the tail.

[klr]

Much as I like the Bf 108, a Bf 109 it is not ...

So, is it true the C.A.F. provided more Spitfires for "B.o.B." than the UK government could scrape up? Or is that an urban legend?

I hadn't heard about that, but it sounds quite plausible. Don't forget that the UK government is not in the business of keeping fleets of warbirds in the air, apart from the likes of the BoB memorial flight that Pen mentioned. Most warbirds are the preserve of private organisations and individuals.

Most of the Spitfires in BoB were cannon-armed, which would have ruled them out straight away on accuracy grounds (for me), as hardly any Spitfires at that time had cannons.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_ ... Production

As I understand it the BoB memorable flight has only one Spitfire that flew in the battle, a 1A. This machine was the one that took a young woman on a circuit of the airfield when she was hanging on to the tail.

I looked around, and found this picture of five Spitfires and two Hurricanes from Duxford in 2007 - click for full size:



I also lightened the full size picture to get a better look at the details. The front Spitfire looks like a Mk. IX (or the basically similar Mk. XVI): Cannon, two-stage Merlin, 4-bladed propeller, and some had clipped wings (as here) for low altitude. There is no way you could get away with using this to represent a BoB aircraft. The next two are even worse: Griffon-engined, with the five-bladed propeller. They look like PR.XIX (unarmed) reconnaissance machines. The fourth Spitfire (right at the bottom) has cannons, and also a four-bladed propeller - but also the short nose of the early versions, with the single-stage Merlin. Very odd - this could be a one-of-a-kind restoration.I think I've seen pictures of this at airliners.net. Only the last Spitfire looks as if it could be proper BoB material.

The first of the Hurricanes is cannon-armed (Mk. IIC or Mk. IV), which would also rule it out of the BoB.

[Pensioner]

I was wrong the incident happed with the BATTLE of BRITAIN MEMORIAL Flight’s 5b spitfire.

“On 14 February 1945, whilst at Hibaldstow, AB910 famously flew with an unauthorised passenger. LACW Margaret Horton, a WAAF ground-crew fitter, had been sitting on the tail whilst the aircraft taxied out to the take-off point (as was standard practice) without the pilot, Flt Lt Neil Cox DFC*, realising she was there. The pilot took off with Margaret still on the tail. The combination of her weight on the tail and her grip on the elevator very nearly had disastrous results but fortunately the pilot was able to regain control and one circuit later he landed with a very frightened WAAF still wrapped around the tail!”

This is the flight’s Battle of Britain Spitfire.

“7350 is the oldest airworthy Spitfire in the world and the only Spitfire still flying today to have actually fought in the Battle of Britain. She is believed to be the 14th aircraft of 11,989 built at the Castle Bromwich ‘shadow’ factory, Birmingham. Entering service in the August of 1940, she flew in the Battle of Britain serving with 266 Squadron and 603 (City of Edinburgh) AuxAF Squadron”

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://www.161recceflt.org.au/MAAF/Imag ... 0Plane.jpg[/imgc]



I actually wrote Scaled Composites and asked them to start building these again, using much better materials S.C. can produce.

[Clinton Huxley]

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Awww, can I have one of the puppies?

[klr]

We have an "ugly ..." thread for monstrosities like that.

[Clinton Huxley]

We have an "ugly ..." thread for monstrosities like that.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Pensioner]

We have an "ugly ..." thread for monstrosities like that.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

You need your eyes testing.

[BrettA]

50+ Years Ago...

[AshtonBlack]

Nice. (Hey there Brett!!!)

[BrettA]

Nice. (Hey there Brett!!!)

Yo! How goes? I see we both currently have up-to-date avatars fully representative of our rather superlative individual visages ;-). (By the way, if you recall helping me with a virus issue - thanks again! - my whole environment changed with an abysmally problematic new Vista-based high-end Dell laptop and subsequent wholesale conversion to Apple and return of the Dell machine... I'm , if not ... Edit: And I was an MS DOS user since 1.0 and a Windows user since 3.1, to give some sort of context around this switch).

[BrettA]

Stoof! ... Grumman ASW S-2F Tracker - Photos circa '67 - '68 (N00bish photographer usually used too high a shutter speed...).















( ... why submariners might not be all that thrilled about aircraft ... )

[klr]

One of the images wasn't displaying for me at first (which you mentioned), but it's OK now.

[Deep Sea Isopod]

I know the Harrier made an appearance on the previous page, but these photo's are one's that I took, and I love the Harrier.
Spent 3 years working with 'um.

GR7's (Pictures taken from onboard a VC10)


Armed escort


Over Iraq


Air to Air refueling.