Posted at h in Spitfire by Fly A Spitfire. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.
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You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Necessary Necessary. Similar to the case of the Hurricane the Spitfire was superior to the Messerschmitt Bf fighter in a dogfight, since it had considerably better turning ability than its German arch rival.
The Spitfire turns as tightly to the left as possible which is more tightly , than the German Me is able to do. The better climbing and diving qualities of the latter are of no use to the pilot in this situation: the bullets from the two machine guns and the two cannon simply pass harmlessly by the tail of the pursued Spitfire and into empty space.
It is the same problem again only this time more perilous for the German pilot. Here a Spitfire is sitting on the tail of an Me in firing position. Instead of diving, which would be the correct action, the German pilot turns to the left. However the Spitfire turns more tightly , and is able to fire the bullets from its complement of eight machine guns ahead of the German Me fighter and into its flight path, greeting the pilot with a hail of bullets.
The Spitfire was somewhat faster at altitudes above 20, feet, it was slower at lower altitudes. The slight difference at level flight was of scarcely any significance, but when climbing—at least at altitudes below 20, feet—and diving, an Me pilot would be likely to leave any Supermarine Spitfire struggling in its wake.
This had a considerable influence on the preferred combat tactics of the two sides. The Germans would attempt to avoid being drawn into a dogfight, but would instead choose the surprise attack from above with the sun behind them, in order to blind their opponent.
After the attack they would immediately dive away only to pull out of the half loop and initiate a further attack. The inflexible British formation with its section of three aircraft—the vic—was tailor-made for this kind of German attack strategy since a measured counter manoeuvre by the British was almost impossible.
The second S6B later set a world air speed record of mph, remarkable for an aircraft carrying huge floats when the fastest fighters of the day could only reach about mph.
In little more than a decade, the stimulus the races gave to aircraft and engine technology had resulted in speeds leaping from not much faster than express trains to well over half the speed of sound. Air Ministry officials still favored open-cockpit biplanes and, since most RAF airfields were grass, insisted on low landing speeds. Mitchell set out to convince them that multi-gun, high-speed monoplane fighters would be crucial in a future war.
Supermarine was now part of Vickers-Armstrongs, a giant engineering and armament company. Chairman Sir Robert McLean gave the go-ahead for a private venture, a plucky decision during the Depression.
The resulting Type exceeded it by more than 60 mph. Meanwhile Mitchell was facing a personal crisis. Two years earlier he had had surgery for colon cancer, almost dying on the operating table.
The grim prognosis would have induced most men to slow down, or even retire. This plus the knowledge that his time was short galvanized him into even greater exertion. The narrow-angle V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin allowed a slim, monocoque fuselage. Mitchell insisted on the wings being as thin and as strong as possible, with low drag, superior maneuverability, mild stall characteristics and high-speed capability—an apparent engineering conundrum that even the brilliant Willy Messerschmitt never solved.
The resulting double-ellipse shape, largely the work of Beverley Shenstone, with a main spar of hollow sections slotted into each other, was exceptionally strong and had a low loading of 26 pounds per square foot. Despite their thinness, the wings could house eight. The design was so advanced it could reach high Mach numbers. In Squadron Leader J. Tobin dived a Spitfire XI to an indicated airspeed of mph Mach 0. And in Flight Lt.
When cockpit pressurization began to fail, Powles had to lose altitude rapidly, reaching mph—Mach 0. In a moderate wind the Spit could be airborne in 50 yards, while the heavy P Thunderbolt needed closer to Spitfire pilots on shared airfields would take off and perform rolls while Thunderbolts labored to get off the ground.
This superb blend of structural strength, agility and high-speed capability made its maiden flight on March 5, Summers found it easy to counteract any swing with the rudder. The new fighter was a huge departure from previous designs the contemporary Hawker Hurricane, for all its admirable qualities, was essentially a monoplane development of the Hart and Fury biplanes.
But Mitchell still had to contend with officialdom, tradition and myopic thinking. Right up to the Battle of Britain, a majority in the Air Ministry held that radical new fighters were a waste of resources. There would be no fighters dogfighting over Britain; only bombers could reach it from Germany.
High speed was unimportant: A few squadrons of Hurricanes—at least mph faster than contemporary bombers—would suffice. The budget called for 68 bomber squadrons and only 20 fighter squadrons.
Without Dowding the Battle of Britain could have been lost in a matter of days. But the prototype Spit was slower than the Hurricane. Unless its top speed improved, the project was dead on arrival.
With a modified propeller design, as test engineer E. Mitchell was not out of the woods yet. Some thought that, due to its racing origins, the aircraft would be too difficult for average pilots to handle. In May , the RAF evaluated the prototype.
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