One for the airplane buffs: Spitfire 944

[kirk13]

My flatmate said I needed to watch this short movie. If you've any interest in Spitfires,or the USAAF,or aviation in general,take a look. It's worth it

[ducttapetech]

That is cool! Thanks Kirk!

[Higgins617]

That's great! Thanks for sharing man

[Chako]

 

[ColoSwiss]

Thanks. 

My Dad was in B-24s in WWII, flying out of England.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That was fantastic viewing, thanks for sharing

Every book and film I have ever watched has extolled the virtues of the Spit. I've never heard any negative comments about the old girl

Sent from the astropathic choir.

[ColoSwiss]

That was fantastic viewing, thanks for sharing

Every book and film I have ever watched has extolled the virtues of the Spit. I've never heard any negative comments about the old girl

Sent from the astropathic choir.

The Spit was beautiful in the air. On the ground its long nose and narrow landing gear made it very tricky to handle in both takeoffs and landings. The Seafire naval version was worse; they lost far more planes to deck landing crashes than to anything else.

Still Captain Eric Brown rated it one of the two best piston fighters of WWII, along with the F-W 190. He rated the P-51 Mustang a small half-step below them. However the P-51 outranged both of the other two by a substantial margin. Brown was British, so possibly a small element of rooting for the home team. On the other hand he was the RN's top test pilot, and far better qualified than most to have an opinion.

http://www.amazon.com/Duels-Sky-World-Aircraft-Combat/dp/0870210637/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418978402&sr=1-1&keywords=duels+in+the+sky&pebp=1418978410464

[zoidberg]

Great watch, thanks. 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Brown is one of my heroes, the guy had a feel for machinery that most of us can only dream off

Sent from the astropathic choir.

[ducttapetech]

3 best fighters in WW2 was the Spitfire, Mustang and the Bf 109. And I have seen all 3 in person. They are awsome to see and touch. So much history in those birds.

[RT1969]

This is so sweet, thanks for sharing! 

Some interesting facts about the reconnaisance photos:
The Americans usually flew reconnaissance directly before and after a bombing run. This means that the pictures contain the exact locations of every new bomb, whether it detonated (big crater) or was a dud (just a small impact crater).

Those picture were invaluable for the explosive ordenance disposal crews in Germany after the war. Most duds could not be seen on site (buried with dirt, forgotten) and would only be found by using this pictures.
Hell, up to this day they are analyzed and new duds found at construction projects, excavations, etc.
These pictures and the maps derived off them are even used for environmental projects (industrial buildings improper demolished or repaired after the war, unmapped landfills, ...). They are of course used by historians as well.

Without guns, those men (and women, I think most photo-interpreters were female) went into war and saved thousands of lives, heck, millions in the long run! 
I truly salute them!

[kkokkolis]

3 best fighters in WW2 was the Spitfire, Mustang and the Bf 109. And I have seen all 3 in person. They are awsome to see and touch. So much history in those birds.

Well, the best was Me 262 and then Mustang and FW190. The Spitfire and Me Bf 109 were the best when the war started and made history in the battle of England, but in every list of that era I would add the Ju 88 also.

[Grathr]

Great short documentary!
Thanks for sharing!


Sent from a device made from star dust using tapatalk

[Lynn LeFey]

I love the lines on the old wwii era aircraft. The Spitfire is a beautiful plane. I wouldn't ever make any claims of 'best aircraft' in WWII, because there was a fair amount of technical improvement during the war. What was state of the art at the beginning was obsolete by the end.

Germans, Japanese, British, and Americans all made some awesome craft. Even some of the Russian designs were excellent in their intended roles.

I'd also say this... if you ever want to blow your mind, look at the numbers of these craft made...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-produced_aircraft

This was a really touching documentary, and an interesting bit of history.

[ColoSwiss]

Without guns, those men (and women, I think most photo-interpreters were female) went into war and saved thousands of lives, heck, millions in the long run! 
I truly salute them!

In Britain a lot of the photo interpreters were women. In more remote combat fronts such as North Africa and the Pacific, most PIs were men.

One of the top British photo interpreters was Constance Babington Smith. She was widely credited with discovering the V-1 site at Peenemunde. Turned out later that was cover for Ultra intercepts.

[ducttapetech]

3 best fighters in WW2 was the Spitfire, Mustang and the Bf 109. And I have seen all 3 in person. They are awsome to see and touch. So much history in those birds.

Well, the best was Me 262 and then Mustang and FW190. The Spitfire and Me Bf 109 were the best when the war started and made history in the battle of England, but in every list of that era I would add the Ju 88 also.

Maybe, be P-51s have shot down the ME 262s. The piston fighter still had range on them. The JU 88 was not a fighter plane like the 109s, P-51 and Spitfighters.

[ColoSwiss]

ME 262 was apparently an outstanding plane. However the Gloster Meteor slightly preceded it in operational use. The Meteors spent most of their time in Britain shooting down buzz-bombs. A handful of Lockheed P-80 (F-80) Shooting Stars were in Europe at the tail end of the war, but saw no combat service. The Lockheed was faster than the -262, and had a better rate-of-climb and higher operational ceiling. Aircraft evolved very quickly during WWII.

[kkokkolis]

Ju88 was a heavy fighter among its myriad other roles, but not the standard lightweight simgle engined fighter of the time. But today the best fighters and multirole aircraft are twin engined so it was ahead of its time.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

The Ju88 was an outstanding night fighter especially once the shrage musik (sp) was installed. Certainly the RAF had no answer to it, as they had no ventral turret coverage

Sent from the astropathic choir.

[Millhouse]

In terms of multi role, one of my favourite planes, the de Havilland Mosquito.

[kkokkolis]

And it was also beautiful, you can enjoy its streamlined aerodynamics.

[RT1969]

The Ju88 was an outstanding night fighter especially once the shrage musik (sp) was installed. Certainly the RAF had no answer to it, as they had no ventral turret coverage

Sent from the astropathic choir.

Quite good. 
It is
Schräge Musik* - literally translated: sloped music, but it can mean a disharmonic tone, too.

And it was a pretty ingenious solution for a very specific problem (how to approach a bomber).

*or Schraege Musik, for people without umlauts on the keyboard.

[kirk13]

The Ju88 was an outstanding night fighter especially once the shrage musik (sp) was installed. Certainly the RAF had no answer to it, as they had no ventral turret coverage

Sent from the astropathic choir.

Quite good. 
It is
Schräge Musik* - literally translated: sloped music, but it can mean a disharmonic tone, too.

And it was a pretty ingenious solution for a very specific problem (how to approach a bomber).

*or Schraege Musik, for people without umlauts on the keyboard.

Interesting! I'd always thought it had translated as jazz music

To add more fuel to the discussion, Chuck Yeager rated the P51D and the Spitfire IX as the top fighters in his view,with the rider that the Spit was slightly superior as a dogfighter.

As to how good the ME262 was,bear in mind what Millhouse says...If your in a fair fight,your tactics Suck!

Most kills against 262s were scored as they where taking off or landing. The early jets lack the acceleration of the piston engines. In combat,the 262s would have made use of their superior speed using dive and zoom tactics against P51 s etc;just as P47 driver did against FW190s.

Likewise,the Flying Tigers used inferior P40 s to tame the A6M Zero by using Circle of Death tactic,depending on mutual support and their heavier construction to counter the Zero's agility

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

The Ju88 was an outstanding night fighter especially once the shrage musik (sp) was installed. Certainly the RAF had no answer to it, as they had no ventral turret coverage

Sent from the astropathic choir.

Quite good. 
It is
Schräge Musik* - literally translated: sloped music, but it can mean a disharmonic tone, too.

And it was a pretty ingenious solution for a very specific problem (how to approach a bomber).

*or Schraege Musik, for people without umlauts on the keyboard.

Thanks for the proper translation

Mosquitoes are a personal favorite of mine too

As is the FW Ta 154 which would have been a real winner given enough development, much better than the flawed Me 210 and to a lesser extent Me410

Sent from the astropathic choir.

[ColoSwiss]

A lot of it also depends on pilot skills. A pair of Douglas Skyraiders shot down a MIG 17 in Viet Nam.

[ColoSwiss]

Mossies are beautiful!

Always wondered how a night fighter Mosquito would do against a night fighter Ju 88. I'm leaning toward the Mosquito winning, based on speed and maneuverability, but don't know if the situation ever arose. A lot of other variables also involved.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Mossies used to deliberately hunt down the Luftwaffe's night fighters so I imagine it happened quite a lot mate.

Sent from the astropathic choir.

[kirk13]

A lot of it also depends on pilot skills. A pair of Douglas Skyraiders shot down a MIG 17 in Viet Nam.

Yeah, but:
1) Skyraiders Rock!
2) The MIG drivers should never,ever have slowed down to engage the Spads. At 300mph,a Spad rocks,and a MIG risks stalling
3) Until Operation Bolo,the F8 Crusader was the leading MIG killer. It was a gun fighter!

There's a story I read years ago in Air International about A10 Warthogs on their first deployment to the UK. A flight of four were bounced by a flight of four F15As. The Eagles got cocky and instead of going in for a 'Fox 2' Sidewinder shot,thought they'd play Snoopy and the Red Barron,and went for gun kills.

Each A10 scored multiple F15 kills,while the Eagles utterly failed to even get into a firing position. This score was based on the camera film from both flights.

[kingdong]

That was awesome. WWII Era airplanes are the best.

Best part about that was the surprise on the pilots face and in his voice seeing that footage. What a great gift it must have been  for him to see after all that time. Warmed me to the core. That generation is an inspiration to say the least. I  absolutely loved watching this video! Thanks for posting!

[Syncop8r]

So many variables as to best fighter. The Hurricane would never rate performance-wise, but did more than the Spitfire in the Battle of Britain - likely due to there being more of them. Also they could be patched up more easily as at the time woodworkers and people who work with fabric were far more plentiful than metalworkers.
I'm not saying the Hurricane was a candidate though.