Or rather, it does for some but not for me! The latter is from Mark Laity in Belgium. I wrote the book equally from the German and British perspective not because I was desperate to appear to offer something new but because I wanted to have a clearer picture of what was going on myself.
Well that was because most people never got the chance to find out. Only a handful of British pilots ever had a chance to fly the Me He is right, though, that the Spitfire was a more graceful bird to fly, but that is missing the point. The MeE could climb faster and dive faster than a Spitfire, two key facets of air-to-air fighting. People can argue all they like about handling, wing-loading, under-carriage widths etc etc, but the bare-faced facts are these: the Me could climb faster, had considerably greater fire-power, and could dive faster.
That made it the best air-to-air fighter of Initially, Fighter Command had Spitfires take off with adhesive tape covering the gunports in order to prevent the condensation from entering and icing the gun barrels.
This did not always work. Later, a portion of the engine exhaust was ducted into the wing to heat the guns. This system proved to be mechanically complex and unreliable. Integrating 20mm cannon was also a great challenge. The belt that fed rounds to the weapon would frequently jam. The technical issues plaguing the Spitfire 1B proved so problematic that the type was withdrawn from service and replaced by the 1A.
Following feedback from pilots of the Condor Legion, Messerschmitt also modified the Bf prototypes with a 20 mm cannon mounted between the engine cylinder banks, firing through the propeller hub. However, the vibration from the cannon was so severe that it proved to be unworkable. This problem was resolved much later in the war. In the meantime, several alternatives were trialled.
The Bf B utilised an engine-mounted machine gun in place of the cannon. This, too, proved to be problematic. The Bf C featured a redesigned wing to accommodate two 7.
The system worked in tests, but failed under the strain of air combat. The Bf D carried four guns — two in the nose and two under the wings. Bf E-1s carried the same armament.
The E-3 models, though, were equipped with a 20 mm cannon under each wing, installed in two streamlined blisters along with a round ammunition drum. Finally, the issues with the engine-mounted cannon were resolved in the F-4 model, which flew with a 20mm cannon that proved to be very accurate. In terms of ease of operation, there were advantages and shortcomings to both designs.
The Bf s angular canopy with its thick frame fell short. It eliminated parallax errors and made deflection shots more accurate. Not only was it uncomfortable, it also restricted the force that pilots could apply on the controls, with obvious effects on flight performance. In an era when hydraulically boosted controls were not available, this was a serious deficiency.
The Bf had no such pedals. The Bf also suffered from handling challenges, both in the air as well as on the ground. The most critical one was the issue with its undercarriage. There were two major problems with the landing gear design that caused serious losses of Bf s on take-off and landing. One was the tendency to ground loop. On rough airstrips that were cobbled together in the later stages of the war, this problem was particularly acute.
Secondly, Willy Messerschmitt wanted his aircraft structures to be as light as possible. That structure lacked the strength to endure hard landings. That put additional strains on the landing gear. The result was that quite often, even experienced pilots ended up collapsing the undercarriage. In alone, the Bf fleet suffered landing accidents that resulted in damage to the airframe.
Italian pilot Fausto After that I flew the G and K versions of the Messerschmitt, but flying was not much different than in the G-6 even if these planes were a bit more docile, faster and with larger guns. The chain linkage was shortened on G from stick to elevators making elevator operation more effective. We broke out of a sandy mist at 10,ft, but I could not gain close proximity to the Spit 18 due to lesser power in my Spit 9.
At about 16,ft the Spit 18 rolled over and dived back towards me at an impossible deflection angle, with machine guns blazing and exhaust smoke rolling out under both wings. I immediately engaged my opponent in an old-fashioned dogfight scissors.
The Spit 9 proved to have better manoeuverability and I was able to get into an ideal firing position. I only recognised the RAF roundel after the Spit 18 had fired on me, when we were in the scissors engagement and I had no alternative but to fight back to save my own bacon. Duncan does offer some small chat about Griffon Spits,.. Mk 12, To me this was the end of the line, the power had outgrown the airframe. Johnny Johnson; After flying the Mk. Dive pullouts were a hair raising experience.
Finnish Aces were arguably best of the lot. The outstanding performer is clearly the German 30 mm MK , which achieves ten times the destructiveness of the. It takes a bunch of weight off the nose and dampens the vibration so that the airplane definitely feels smoother and lighter on the controls. It also makes power faster — it spins up right away. Is your argument that the increased power was absorbed better by the Bf than by the Spitfire, and that the fact that earlier mark Spitfires had better handling characteristics than late-mark ones made them superior fighters?
In that case, the basic premise is wrong. If maneuverability was the deciding factor for if a fighter is better, this comparison would have been won by the Fokker Dr. There is a reason that we today have fighters flying at supersonic speeds instead of biplanes which feature far better maneuverability.
If the Mk. For the comparison of cannons, the destructive power of the 30 mm cannon is undisputable, but the large calibre combined with short barrel meant that the bullet drop was a real issue, especially together with the slow er rate of fire.
As such, the long 20 mm guns with their faster rate of fire and their higher V0 often held an edge in fighter on fighter combat, especially in the hands of average non-ace pilots. An interesting point is that by the time the F.
This if anything shows the fact that RAF still valued the fighter in its later versions. Just how it was. They started in earnest in early in the Wiener Neustadt works.
Pierre Clostermann… The Spitfires were powerless. In any case all the Spit IX Squadrons operated most of the time as fighter-bombers. The Huns, knowing the Spits quality in dogfight, carefully avoided taking them on, and the poor Spits had neither the speed nor the range to force the new German fighters to fight.
The DB was the same engine block as the DB , it was just bored out, so the did not have the same overweight issue the later Spit did. How was I to know this was 2 plus yrs old?
The Aces Talk page I preferred three guns in the center of the aircraft, right along the longitudinal axis. This mean you had to aim very carefully, but when you did, our excellent ammunition got the job done. Last thought. The solution arrived in the form of Seafury after the war. G elevator travel different than G-6, this means more bang for the buck when one pulls on the stick.
The reduction of elevator range of movement for the same stick travel would imply a greater mechanical advantage and therefore, a lower stick-force per G, and so at high-speed it would be easier for the pilot to apply G and, if control loads were previously limiting as they were in the and most similar aircraft ,then greater G loads would be possible.
Also G had electronic ignition like P so one could re-start the motor in mid air.. The oil pan was made from roughly 1 quarter inch steel, armored in other words, to protect against ground fire. Radiators also had small armor protection. 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.
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