Sad history, of course, but still a beautiful plane.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/spitfire-ancaster-england-wwii-1.6689232

Great plane. Would love to fly in one, Don't know much about a two seater but saw pointy of Spits as a kid. Dozens at one time in the massive victory fly over in late 45 or 46. The Hurricane was the work horse of the Battle of Britain but the Spitfire had the glamor. What a thrill it must have been to fly his dad's plane.

This isn't really the correct forum for it, but as someone intensely interested in all things aviation related, I have always held that the Supermarine Spitfire (especially the early Marks) is the most beautiful mechanical artifact ever created by humans!

And the case can be made that this machine and the young men who flew it really did save civilization during the summer of 1940.

To keep it on topic, Winston Churchill was not talking about Joseph Smith when he famously said, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2023 09:28AM by bobik43.

bobik43 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This isn't really the correct forum for it, but as
> someone intensely interested in all things
> aviation related, I have always held that the
> Supermarine Spitfire (especially the early Marks)
> is the most beautiful mechanical artifact ever
> created by humans!

Nah, it's the P-38 Lightning :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning

Hardly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4c6L2UjkRY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2023 04:36PM by anybody.

The last one I saw in flight was near Folkestone (just up the road from Dover) and it was flying quite love just off the coast near the white cliffs. It was accompanied by a helicopter. I thought at the time that perhaps it was a pleasure flight and the helicopter was there to record the flight for paying customers. I learned later they were probably filming Spitfire scenes for the movie Dunkirk.

Bobik43 what doi you know about the two seater version? Did is fly combat or was it a training version?

I don't recall ever hearing of there being a standard production two seater, but I think I remember reading somewhere that the Soviets converted some lend lease units to two seat trainers. Clearly, it's possible to add a seat, but I think it spoils the aesthetics.

I envy you your memories of having seen real Spits in action, Kentish, although I'm sure you suffered your share of hardship during the war.

I was a very young child but remember them flying over from time to time. They were still operational for some years after the and I saw them often. I was in the school playground when the big victory fly over took place that included all kinds of planes, Pretty exciting for us young kids.

I remember a some years ago going up to Hill Airforce Base in Utah for a special dinner. The VIP guests were Stanford Tuck, a Battle of Britain ace and Adolph Galland, the top German ace. I got to meet both.

kentish Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember a some years ago going up to Hill
> Airforce Base in Utah for a special dinner. The
> VIP guests were Stanford Tuck, a Battle of
> Britain ace and Adolph Galland, the top German
> ace. I got to meet both.

Wow, kentish. What an experience.

I love their sound (as we've said before):

Biggin Hill:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=what+do+spitfires+sound+like%3F#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a8e11bed,vid:Td3t6Pv1wH8



Reminds me of Neil Diamond and his Beautiful Noise - what a great title:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Beautiful+Noise#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8e69934a,vid:ySBBfdnGGlM

Nightingale, I lived in the southeast of London and Biggin Hill was a couple of buses away just outside. Don't know if they still have it but in the early 50s they always celebrated a Battle of Britain Day at the airfield which was a major base during the war. There was always some great planes coming and going and for a small fee you could sit in the cockpit of a Meteor jet fighter and fire the 20mm cannon that were lined up into a mass of sandbags. The Meteor was the first jet fighter in service for western countries. Never could afford to do it as it took all our pocket money for the bus fare.

For years they had an original Spitfire on display outside the field but it was replaced with a replica after originals became so valuable.

One sad memory of Biggin Hill was the base chapel where the WW2 day book sits on the altar. The page is turned each day in accordance with the date and the names of pilots lost that day are shown.

The P51 was built to British military specs and was transformed when they added the Rolls Royce Merlin engine. The same basic engine that powered the Spitfire. These engines were manufactured under license in the US by Packard. It was a great plane, fast and powerful.

The only thing better than a Merlin engine was two Merlin engines, which the amazing DeHavilland Mosquito had. An amazing plane because it was made largely of wood and parts could be manufactured in any wood shop away from industrialized areas that were prone to being bombed.

I thought you would know Biggin Hill, kentish.

It's amazing, really, when you think how much history we've managed to preserve. Especially machines and records and photos from wartime.

So much innovation and capability to build the birds and make them sing as well as skill to fly them.

Too bad they have to be associated with war, one of the greatest failures of humankind.

But sometimes what choice is there? Bloody H - he got off easy.

That's great. My being at the dinner was a strange thing, I was in the old Cottonwood Hospital with a kidney stone. In came a urologist who on hearing my accent asked where I was from. When I told him London he asked if I knew where St. Dunstan's College was. Amazingly it was at the bottom of the street I lived on during WW2 and I knew it well. It was used as some kind of military center during the war and we would often see soldiers marching in and out. With my brother and friends I scrumpt many an apple from a tree on the grounds.

He went on to explain that he was a massive fan of Stanford Tuck who had attended the school before the war. He later started a Battle of Britain Society and the first meeting was held at Hill Air Force Base with Tuck and Galland as guest speakers and me as an invitee. That would have been at the time you met up with them.

I met them too, kentish! However, I saw them in one of the buildings on the east side of the SLC airport, perhaps the executive terminal, or maybe the ANG building, and alas, no dinner involved. It was a long time ago, Oct. 24, 1981! I bought a couple of prints and asked each of them to autograph them, and each did. I've had them framed and in my mancave for the last many years.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2023 09:56PM by bobik43.

Perhaps it is American chauvinism on my part, but I always thought the P-51 Mustang is what a WWII fighter was supposed to look like. And they seemed to have cooler paint jobs, which is basically what I judged them on as a kid. :)

Corsairs looked like they belonged in a John Wayne movie, which they probably were, which is why that image is lodged somewhere in the dusty recesses of my brain.

The P-51 is a beautiful machine. I think of it as an Americanized Spitfire. They share engines, iirc.

True!

The Imperial War Museum is an incredible place to visit if ever you find yourself in London. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call it that, as it glorifies neither Imperialism nor war, but has a lot of contextual information about various conflicts around the world, along with aircraft suspended from the ceilings. I noticed that the article you linked, Nightingale, had a photo of the pilot with a small spaniel in the cockpit and must be from the archives of the Imperial War Museum.
Well worth a trip, Kentish, but I suspect you’ve probably been there a few times.

I have. The last time while I was there they broadcast the sound of the WW2 air raid siren. It stopped me in my tracks and caused my grandson who was with me to ask what was wrong.

Yes, I imagine it must have! Helicopters and thunder used to do it to my uncle, who fought in Vietnam, and was severely traumatised.
My MIL (RIP) used to say the same about the sirens, though she also admitted that the war was a bit exciting for her five year-old self. She was living in Manchester and her dad was a sheet metal worker there. Her grandchildren were always asking her to, “tell us about the war grandma.”

She had some good stories. “Got any gum, chum?” This was the question directed towards American GIs, who usually had a pack of chewing gum in their rations. She managed to get a
US pin (maybe from a soldier’s American army uniform lapel) and it sits on a shelf, in a small Kilner jar, with a Spitfire coat pin.

My wife told me that British movie director Guy Richie is offering Spitfire flights from his privately owned airfield in England. As I plan to be there in August, I checked out the price. For about thirty minutes it would cost a little under three thousand pounds. That's just a smidge over my weekly pocket money allowance so I will have to forgo the opportunity. Bedsides, if I can't shoot down a Messerschmitt during the flight it might not be the thrill I want.