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00:00It's a great aeroplane for tight turning. It's not a difficult aeroplane to fly at all.
00:22It built up an aura that has never been achieved by any other aircraft in world history.
00:29The Spitfire has got all the credit because of all this romantic mythologising, but actually it was the humble old hurricane that carried the day.
00:37It seems to stand out more than the hurricane actually, doesn't it, the Spitfire?
00:40It's all about the Battle of Britain as far as I'm concerned, yeah.
00:43This small fighter is possibly the most vital weapon that Britain in all its long history has produced. It's a Spitfire.
00:50In June 1940, one of 700, it will soon be lost in the first decisive battle to be fought in the air, the Battle of Britain.
00:59The Spitfire would fight the contemporary German Messerschmitt, in many ways a similar machine, though one produced from very different motives.
01:21To date, they had hardly tested each other. In a matter of weeks, the courage and skill of the young pilots, the technology, the ability of designers and engineers of both countries would all be tested to the ultimate limit.
01:41Both the ME 109 and the Spitfire were, of course, killing machines. The difference being that the German fighter looked it. The Spitfire having a refined air which somehow placed it above the vulgar havoc of war.
02:03A
02:19The
02:25Then came the 10th of May and Blitzkrieg.
02:55What General Weigand called the Battle of France, it opened.
03:09I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.
03:15The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
03:22Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.
03:34The Battle of Britain, fought during the long summer of 1940, is to be the first attempt at subjugation by air power alone.
03:46The German pilots are confident.
03:55Many, like Werner Molder's, soon to be an ace with a hundred kills, have learned their grim trade over Spain, Poland, the Low Countries and France.
04:04The 15th of August, 1940, at La Tague, Eagle Day.
04:20Over 1,200 fighters rise like mayflies from the meadows of northern France.
04:331,800 bombers, Heinkels, Junkers and Dorniers, escorted by the Measuresmiths, take off and set course for England.
04:46The RAF, though outnumbered, has the benefit of radar and accurate ground control.
04:51But the Luftwaffe has yet to taste defeat.
04:54The outcome of the battle lies in the hands of the young fighter pilots.
04:58One, west, sugar, 1187, sugar, 1187, four, three, one, zero.
05:26Intercept, ray, four, six.
05:33I got my sights onto one bomber and gave him a long burst.
05:36I concentrated my fire on him, and he went down in flames.
05:39There's a dogfight going up there. There are four, five, six machines.
05:42They started chasing us, and we were chasing them, in and out of the clouds.
05:46Just a flash and a puff of smoke and bits of debris.
05:49But I got in a lovely burst of machine gun fire.
05:52This shook the German pilots so much that they immediately broke formation.
05:55Oh, boy, I've never seen anything so good as this.
05:58The RAF fighters have really got these boys, Terry.
06:01What a sight, and what a scratch.
06:03That's from my guns. He blew up.
06:05One of my trace bullets must have hit his special tank.
06:08Oh, boy, look at them going, and look how the mission...
06:12Oh, that is really grand.
06:14And there's a spitfire just behind the first two. He'll get them.
06:17The RAF is not smashed, the invasion postponed indefinitely.
06:24A legend is created.
06:26The legend of the RAF fighter pilots, peacetime playboys,
06:30who, flying a dwindling handful of spitfires against impossible odds,
06:34have saved the free world by routing the Luftwaffe in its pomp.
06:38The gentlemen have defeated the players.
06:41All boys back?
06:42Yes, all except Mac, sir. He had to bail out.
06:45But what about you? You all right? Did you get anything, sir?
06:47Yes, I got a crank up, but wait till I get out of here and I'll give him my report.
06:52Of course, he's lost the mark.
06:54Yeah.
06:55The one they got back, isn't it?
06:56Yeah.
06:57I saw him crash into the sea and the crew got away in a rubber dinghy.
07:00Well, that's 111 definitely destroyed.
07:03Sir, three of them got away in a boat.
07:05Yeah.
07:06By the way, sir, Wick is claiming to have destroyed a 215.
07:09Air Ministry communicate.
07:11The biggest bag yet.
07:14185 enemy aircraft shot down.
07:18The figures from both sides are proved to be exaggerated.
07:21Nevertheless, the RAF has won a famous victory, if only by the most narrow of margins, during 116 days in 1940.
07:30Curiously, although the pilots, the few, Churchill will call them, are honored,
07:34it is the Spitfire fighter which, like the longbow and Nelson's wooden walls, is to become the symbol of Britain at war.
07:41It will be useless for historians to point out that there were, in fact, more Hurricanes flying in the battle.
07:47Hurricanes equipped 29 squadrons, Spitfires only 19.
07:51Or that Hurricanes shot down three times as many enemy aircraft.
07:58The image of the Spitfire has captured the imagination of the public.
08:01For following the Battle of Britain, Spitfire funds are organized in every town and village in the country.
08:07Never a hurricane fundraising.
08:13During the battle, as Luftwaffe losses mounted, even the Germans seem to be accepting the legend of the invincibility of the Spitfire.
08:20General Der Flieger Dolpho Gallant.
08:23Goering came out to our airfields in France.
08:28He was met at those fighter pilots, because we did not succeed in giving sufficient defense to our bomber squadrons against British fighters.
08:38When Goering asked me what he could do about it, I replied,
08:43Get me Spitfires for my wing.
08:46Such is the legend.
08:48What are the facts?
08:50During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe losses were 1,733 aircraft destroyed and 643 damaged.
08:59The RAF had claimed twice the number.
09:01The RAF have lost 915 aircraft in combat, 402 of them Spitfires.
09:10The Germans have claimed over 3,000, a figure far in excess of the total RAF fighter establishment.
09:23The RAF have also lost 415 fighter pilots killed in action.
09:28And few of those who survived the battle will survive the war.
09:35Contrary to legend, during the battle, the RAF was never short of either Spitfires or Hurricanes.
09:41The shortage was pilots.
09:43Again, contrary to legend, many of the pilots were sergeants.
09:47It took a year to train a fighter pilot.
09:50Training was intensified, and many pilots were transferred from the Fleet Air Arm and converted to fly Hurricanes.
09:56Plug in RT.
09:59Put RT to receive.
10:02Switch on undercarriage lights.
10:07Put petrol on reserve.
10:14History has not been kind to the Hurricane, which was not markedly inferior to the early Spitfire.
10:19It was easier to fly and land.
10:22It was a better gun platform.
10:24True, the Hurricane was not as fast.
10:27So as far as possible, Hurricanes attacked the bombers.
10:30The faster and more agile Spitfires took on the fighters.
10:33The Spitfires and Hurricanes were complementary.
10:35But in 1940, and certainly today, 50 years on, the Spitfires stand secure as the winner of the Battle of Britain, and as the supreme fighter of all time.
10:45In permanent celebration of the 1940 victory, Spitfires were used at many RAF stations as gate guardians.
10:56Now, they're glass fiber replicas.
10:58The Spitfires which used to stand at the gates have been brought in from the cold, either for restoration or to donate components to keep the immaculate air show queens of the RAF's Battle of Britain memorial flight airworthy.
11:10The Western Britain memorial flight airworthy.
11:40Squadron leader Paul Day taxis a spitfire of the memorial flight at Coningsby to delight an airshow audience,
12:07most of whom could not have been born when in 1941 this spitfire was the fastest fighter in the RAF.
12:14The origins of the spitfire began ten years earlier than that.
12:21In 1931, the fastest fighters in the RAF were these most elegant Hawker Fury biplanes.
12:29They're the first RAF fighters to exceed 200 miles per hour in level flight.
12:33Powered by a 650 horsepower Rolls-Royce engine, they have a maximum speed of 207 miles per hour and are delightful to fly.
12:44At that time, these two men had other ideas about the speed of RAF aircraft.
12:50Sir Henry Royce and Reginald Mitchell.
12:53Royce was the driving force behind the Rolls-Royce car and aero engine concern.
12:57Reginald Mitchell was chief designer for the Supermarine Company of Woolston, Southampton,
13:03which specialised in the construction of flying boats.
13:08Mitchell had designed a series of all-metal monoplane racing seaplanes,
13:12entered as the RAF high-speed flight, to compete for the Schneider Trophy,
13:17an international event for seaplanes which became the venue for the absolute world speed record.
13:22Britain had won the two previous meetings.
13:24To win the trophy outright, Britain had to win the third meeting to be held at CalShot in 1931.
13:33The Air Ministry declined to finance the three aircraft.
13:37To the lasting shame of the government of the day,
13:40it was left to a private citizen, Lady Houston,
13:43to put up £100,000 for the construction of the 1931 seaplanes Mitchell had designed.
13:48They were built round a new 36-litre V12 supercharged Rolls-Royce R engine,
13:56designed and developed to produce the then-unheard-of figure of 2,600 horsepower.
14:02This enabled the Supermarines to win the Schneider Trophy outright,
14:06and then to raise the absolute world speed record to a staggering 406.7 miles per hour.
14:13The Supermarine was not the prototype for the Spitfire.
14:22Impressive though the performance of the seaplanes had undoubtedly been,
14:26they were in no sense practical aircraft.
14:29The sprint engines had to be stripped and overhauled after every five hours running.
14:33In 1931, none of the RAF's grass airfields would have been large enough
14:38for them to take off as land planes.
14:40The experience gained enabled Mitchell to design and build a monoplane RAF fighter.
14:46It was unofficially called Spitfire and flew in 1934.
14:50However, the performance was disappointing.
14:53That Spitfire was to end its days as a gunnery target.
14:58Back to the drawing board.
15:00Mitchell revised the design with a retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpit,
15:05though still retaining the underpowered Rolls-Goshawk.
15:08The Air Ministry was not enthusiastic.
15:11A still later version, again, Goshawk-powered, was offered.
15:15It also failed to excite official interest,
15:18though the elliptical wings hinted at a familiar shape to come.
15:22In 1934, Rolls-Royce had been on the point of giving up aero engine manufacture.
15:31They announced a new engine based on the record-breaking 36-litre Schneider Trophy R
15:36that had been scaled down to a mere 27 litres
15:39to produce a lightweight V12 military aero engine in the 1,000-horsepower class.
15:45It was to be named Merlin.
15:48In 1934, it represented the world peak of applied technology.
15:54Excited by the promise of this powerful new Rolls-Royce engine,
15:58Mitchell proposed in 1935 a final revision of his rejected monoplane.
16:02It was clean and purposeful.
16:06However, the elliptical wings caused official disquiet,
16:09for though aerodynamically efficient, they would be difficult to manufacture.
16:13Nevertheless, a 10,000-pound contract was offered for the prototype
16:17to be ready by October 1935.
16:21At Hawker's, a rival fighter is on the drawing board.
16:24It's been designed by Sidney Cam, who was also responsible for the Fury,
16:28and it, too, will be a Merlin-powered monoplane.
16:31As you know, we've been thinking around this problem for some time,
16:35and without any doubt, it means leaving the biplane,
16:37which we know so well,
16:39and going to the monoplane with heavier armament
16:41and many new features, such as closed cockpit,
16:45retractable undercarriage, higher wing loading,
16:48and, of course, new structural problems.
16:51The biplane Fury became the monoplane Hurricane.
16:56In 1935, 600 were ordered.
16:58The Hurricane was an easier proposition to manufacture than the rival Spitfire.
17:04It was the end of a simple wood, metal, and fabric technology,
17:08which began with the Sopwitz of 1917.
17:11The Spitfire was a complex new all-metal technology.
17:14The planning of Britain's new air program begins to show results.
17:18Preview is given of Vickers' contribution to the mightier air fleet,
17:22which will bring air supremacy to Britain.
17:24The Spitfire takes off first.
17:26This is the latest type of single-seater fighter,
17:28and, as you can see, a monoplane.
17:29In design and construction,
17:31she is not unlike the last Snyder Trophy winner,
17:33and she is going to be a great asset to the RAF, is pretty obvious.
17:36We are flying along in our own plane at about 175,
17:41so what speed she is capable of,
17:42you may judge from the pace at which she overtakes us.
17:45July 1936.
17:48Geoffrey Quill, the test pilot.
17:50Mitchell was in the chase plane.
17:52Sadly, he was not to live to see his design into production,
17:55for he died the following year of cancer at the early age of 42.
17:59Mitchell was succeeded by his chief draftsman, Joe Smith,
18:04as the Spitfire went into production.
18:07Mitchell had this power,
18:09not only was he a great designer,
18:10but he had this essential quality
18:13that he was able to build up an extremely competent team around him,
18:17and to really make it work as a team and control it,
18:21and this is, of course, what uses a good aeroplane.
18:24It can't be done any other way.
18:26I think it's right to say that at the time,
18:27not everybody believed that the Spitfire was a good aeroplane,
18:32or even a practical aeroplane.
18:34There was a very widely held view
18:35that it was far too much influenced
18:37by the racing experience that supermarines had,
18:41and that it was, in fact, nothing more or less
18:42than a sort of racehorse,
18:43which was quite unsuitable for the hurly-burly of service life,
18:48and a lot of people thought the engineering was too difficult,
18:50it couldn't be produced.
18:52And it very nearly wasn't,
18:54for what would become a depressingly familiar failing of British industry
18:57was soon manifest.
18:59The production of the first order for 310 Spitfires
19:02fell behind schedule and went over budget.
19:05There were appalling delays
19:07because of the inability of the subcontractors
19:10to actually fabricate, for example, the wings of the Spitfire,
19:13and so the Spitfire was delivered to the squadrons
19:1818 months after the Messerschmitt 109
19:20was delivered to the German squadrons.
19:22The Messerschmitt is a sort of Mercedes job.
19:26In other words, it entirely understands production, engineering,
19:30the problems of fabrication and manufacture,
19:32and was designed as that from the start,
19:35and therefore it is less romantic, less beautiful,
19:38but in its way just as effective,
19:40and much more easy to produce.
19:42And what people don't often realise is
19:44that the later marks of Spitfire
19:46took three times the man-hours to produce
19:48as the later marks of Messerschmitt.
19:51I think the difference between the Spitfire and the Messerschmitt
19:53is a total difference in the philosophy of making anything.
19:58To me, the Spitfire is part of British romanticism
20:01and love of individual craftsmanship,
20:04you know, the beautiful thing,
20:05the kind of sports car ideal,
20:07and was designed by Mitchell himself
20:10with no idea whatsoever
20:11about the problems of production engineering.
20:14No, it wasn't designed with mass production,
20:1822,000 eventually, in mind at all.
20:22It was an advanced aeroplane,
20:24a thoroughbred aeroplane with no concessions
20:26to anything except aerodynamics.
20:29And the Spitfire was a very advanced aeroplane for its time
20:32because it was just the start of stress-skin wings and fuselage.
20:36Fuselage of the Spitfire never gave any problem,
20:39but the wings were complicated.
20:41They were very thin,
20:42much thinner than any previous aeroplane,
20:44and they were elliptical
20:45to get the best aerodynamic results.
20:47So they were a complicated production job,
20:50and supermarines didn't do them themselves.
20:52Supermarines, when the Spitfire came into production,
20:55had only 600 people.
20:57By 1940, they doubled it,
21:00and by the end of the war,
21:01they had 10,000 spread around.
21:03But the wings were subcontracted,
21:05out to general aircraft,
21:09to Pobjoy motors,
21:10to press steel at Kali.
21:11And so they were built in various places,
21:14and then brought together,
21:15and they didn't all fit together.
21:17So this held up things to begin with,
21:19but it's unfair to say they didn't get going,
21:21because they did.
21:23As Spitfire production belatedly got underway in 1938,
21:27the last months of peace were ebbing away.
21:39In a blaze of propaganda,
21:41the German Messerschmitt 109,
21:43the fighter which would soon challenge the Spitfire,
21:46breaks the world land plane record at 379 miles per hour.
21:50It was in fact a special aircraft,
21:57though the Germans claimed it only to be a slightly modified service ME 109.
22:02The record-breaking pilot was an engineer,
22:04Dr. Hermann Wurster.
22:09The Luftwaffe began serious training as soon as Hitler came to power.
22:14The pupils were hand-picked,
22:16and learned to fly the Messerschmitt,
22:18a professional's aircraft.
22:20There were no weekend biggles here.
22:24It was not until July 1938,
22:27that 19 Squadron converted from Gauntlet biplanes,
22:30to become the first RAF Spitfire squadron.
22:32The CO, Squadron leader Eilif Cousins.
22:36The Squadron morale wasn't exactly high,
22:39because after all,
22:40the Gauntlet wasn't fast enough to run away from the Messerschmitt.
22:44And so, after a certain amount of wheeling and dealing with fighter command,
22:52I managed to get the first allocation of the Spitfires.
22:55I collected one and so on,
22:57and the great point was...
22:59could the average fighter fly a Spitfire without any dual,
23:05because there were no dual Spitfires?
23:09So, consequently, we had an indoctrination program,
23:14whereby we watched somebody take off who knew the ropes,
23:17and, of course, read the manual,
23:23and had hints and tips and so on,
23:26and gave him a pat on the back and said,
23:29it's all yours.
23:31One unlikely pupil was the Under-Secretary of State for Air,
23:34Captain Balfour,
23:35who showed keen ministerial interest.
23:37What is more, having got into a flying suit,
23:39he takes the machine for a spin.
23:42An Under-Secretary of State
23:44who can handle the fastest aircraft of the service
23:46at 300 miles an hour.
23:5019 Squadron, with nine others,
23:52were Spitfire equipped just as war was declared
23:55in September 1939.
24:09Flown.
24:11Flown.
24:12Was it as good as legend supposes?
24:15Eight guns were fired by a simple button
24:17on the pilot's control column.
24:19The reflector sight worked on a Victorian music hall illusion
24:23known as Peppa's Ghost.
24:26There were four guns in each wing,
24:28.303-inch Brownings,
24:29each with around 300 rounds,
24:32belted and fed from boxes
24:34to enable the fighter to be quickly re-armed in battle.
24:37A good ground crew could re-arm and refuel a Spitfire
24:40in under eight minutes.
24:42During the Battle of Britain,
24:4430 Spitfires were armed with two 20-millimeter Hispano cannon,
24:48but the thin wings had to have bulged fairings
24:51to accommodate the bulky cannon magazines.
25:00Due to the tendency of the early cannon to jab,
25:04machine guns were preferred.
25:06They were traditionally protected
25:07by the application of doped fabric to the gun ports.
25:10By the onset of the Battle of Britain,
25:15the variable pitch propellers of Spitfires and Hurricanes
25:18had been fitted with a constant speed unit,
25:20in the simplest terms,
25:22an automatic in place of a manual control.
25:25It meant that pilots could use full combat power
25:27without the danger of over-revving the engines.
25:31The primary flying controls were manual,
25:33operated directly by the pilot,
25:35though the landing flaps did operate by compressed air.
25:42The radio, wireless in 1940,
25:45was the TR-9, an HF-AM set
25:48which could be picked up by an all-wave domestic radio.
25:51People listened enthralled to the new lexicon of combat,
25:54scramble, angels 1-5, bandits,
25:57tally-ho,
25:58and the screams of boys trapped in blazing cockpits.
26:03A preserved Mark II built by Westlands in 1940.
26:07It's undergoing a major overhaul.
26:10Tony Bianchi, Spitfire pilot and restorer of wartime aircraft,
26:14is responsible for the overhaul.
26:16OK.
26:16Morning.
26:18How's it going?
26:19I think this camshaft's OK,
26:21but we're going to have to check the other one
26:22just to be on the safe side.
26:24We've probably been lucky with these, haven't we?
26:25The 1940 Spitfire,
26:27which could do about 350 miles per hour,
26:30was a simple machine.
26:31It had no electronics.
26:33The instruments are operated by vacuum or pressure.
26:36The fuselage, a hollow alloy tube.
26:40Were these formidable fighters well-engineered?
26:42Generally, they're well-made aeroplanes.
26:46You find a few things on them which aren't very nice,
26:49but you can't really tell whether that's in manufacture
26:52or the work of a repair station.
26:54The real heart to the aeroplane is the Merlin engine,
26:58which was fitted in the Hurricane and the Mustang,
27:00and it's got more than adequate power,
27:03largely due to its excellent supercharging,
27:06and the ideal thing is to have a properly supercharged engine
27:10with a carburettor,
27:12which is exactly what this is,
27:13and it started off at, what, 1,000 horsepower
27:17and eventually doubled in power.
27:18But what was the Spitfire like from the pilot's point of view?
27:23Squadron leader Paul Day,
27:24a jet fighter pilot who also flies the Spitfires
27:27of the RAF's memorial flight,
27:29assesses a 1940 Mark I,
27:31which actually fought in the Battle of Britain.
27:33Okay, of the things which are possibly undesirable
27:42as a design feature,
27:44because of the left-hand positioning of the throttle quadrant
27:46where it needs to be,
27:48it means the undercarriage controls are on the right,
27:51and consequently, immediately after take-off,
27:53one changes hands,
27:55so that's a little undesirable.
27:57Flaps, which are here
27:59and reasonably well-positioned for operation,
28:03have no function in terms of performance flap
28:06like a Masher-Smith slats.
28:07They are simply either down or up,
28:09and for most of the time on a Spitfire,
28:11they would be up,
28:12so they offer you nothing other than full drag for landing.
28:17Of the rest of it,
28:18it's not badly positioned in terms of instrumentation,
28:21except that the engine instruments,
28:23which are clustered over on the right-hand side,
28:26are not particularly attention-getting
28:28in terms of you having a problem
28:30during a period of high workload.
28:32I think the first thing you would know
28:34is oil on the windscreen or smoke.
28:37Because of the addition of the armoured glass
28:39and the columns here,
28:40it very much restricts vision forward.
28:43There would be a reflector gun sight here,
28:45which will restrict it even further.
28:47These panels are not particularly good.
28:50Quality of the glass here
28:52is actually extremely poor and distortive,
28:55and therefore will cut down the range
28:57at which you're going to see somebody.
28:59That having been said,
29:00there are also problems now
29:02in that it is very difficult
29:03to turn one's head round and look backwards,
29:06which one needs to do,
29:07because it's where the problem will arise
29:08most of the time.
29:10For that, we have
29:11a tiny little make-up mirror here,
29:13so you're scanning
29:14a very small fixed piece of sky.
29:16Out front, there's a good six, eight feet of nose,
29:19ten feet of nose,
29:20if you're talking Griffon Spitfire,
29:22under which all manner of nastiness
29:25can be going on.
29:26For instance, even nowadays,
29:28low level in a Griffon Spitfire,
29:32at 500 feet, the next three miles
29:34is blind to you under the nose.
29:37You then come to what can you see
29:39actually out of the cockpit,
29:40and of course, what you can see
29:42is mainly this wonderful elliptical wing
29:45under which all manner of other problems
29:47are going to be hiding.
29:49So all in all,
29:51the wing is wonderful,
29:52but the wing is very, very much in the way
29:55in terms of what you'd expect
29:57of certainly a modern combat aeroplane.
29:59There's far too much nose,
30:01and because you're constrained in the cockpit,
30:03actually seeing behind you
30:05where the trouble normally comes from
30:06is somewhat of a labour of love.
30:09It's light and agile,
30:10and it is, given the lineage
30:13of other World War II fighters,
30:16well up in its class.
30:18It has the clear benefit
30:21that it's got an excellent CSU,
30:24i.e. a variable pitch propeller.
30:26Throttle Quadrant's where you want it to be.
30:29The actual system for arming and firing,
30:32the whole thing,
30:33was where you want it to be,
30:34and extremely simple,
30:35unlike some modern fighters.
30:38Given the small cockpit,
30:39you can, in fact,
30:41get an awful lot of back stick
30:42with quite a reasonable amount of aileron.
30:45So all in all,
30:46yes, as a dogfight aeroplane of that era,
30:49it's pretty good.
30:51So as it turned out,
30:52Reginald Mitchell got it more or less right.
30:55I think Mitchell got it absolutely right.
30:57Yes, indeed.
30:58He was the quantum jump in fighter design,
31:00and I think had we not had it,
31:03we could have been in big trouble.
31:04Me 109G, the Gustav,
31:13captured after the Battle of El Alamein in 1942,
31:30stored for many years,
31:32nearing end of 16-year rebuild
31:34to be the only airworthy original wartime 109 of 33,000 built.
31:45Paul Day, Spitfire pilot and Spitfire critic,
31:48climbs into a measuresmith for the first time.
31:50Well, good grief.
32:04The overall impression is actually most discouraging.
32:08The canopy,
32:08the whole design of the canopy,
32:10seems to be based on a Kaiser's helmet
32:12or an afterthought or...
32:13I really don't know what.
32:15The second immediate impression
32:19is just how unbelievably small it is.
32:23It is probably a good 25% less working room
32:29even than a Spitfire,
32:31which surprises me.
32:34Given...
32:35given that I'm lightly built
32:38and didn't have that much room in a Spitfire,
32:41there is actually no room whatsoever,
32:43and, in fact, I could do with a lot more room
32:45at shoulder height here.
32:47There is quite considerable interference
32:51with the ability to move the stick left and right.
32:54It affects your ability to swivel round
32:56even without the canopy shut.
32:59Right, well, let's see what it's like with the lid down.
33:01Well, well, this certainly isn't
33:12for the squeamishly claustrophobic.
33:16Even with no helmet
33:18and with a relatively low seat cushion,
33:22head is already against the top of the canopy,
33:26so-called canopy.
33:27Fairly, fairly obviously,
33:29the first thing that takes you
33:32is just how little room.
33:34It is probably...
33:37It's a good 100% worse
33:39than the problem of turning round
33:42to look behind you in a Spitfire.
33:44The view forward,
33:46well, is almost all
33:48either crux of Essen
33:49or two inches of armoured glass.
33:51It's impossible to fly this aeroplane
33:53with the canopy open,
33:54which accounts for the provision
33:55of the sliding side windows,
33:57which is fine.
33:58However,
33:59as it has no side door either,
34:02then the consequences of
34:04crash landing coming to rest upside down
34:07are fatal, undoubtedly.
34:10OK, let's do a bit more weightlifting
34:12on what is actually a very heavy canopy,
34:14which I wouldn't care to have
34:15drop on my head
34:17or wrestle with in a bay light situation,
34:19and take a look at
34:21what, to be fair to the aeroplane,
34:23are some features in the cockpit
34:25which I actually like.
34:27Starting on the left,
34:29the elevator trim wheel
34:31is perhaps a bit too big,
34:32but nicely positioned
34:33and business-like.
34:36Throttle quadrant is nice,
34:37throttle friction is nice,
34:39it's all business-like,
34:40well to hand,
34:41and of course that
34:42allows sufficient space
34:45for what is perhaps
34:45the best comparative feature
34:48cockpit-wise
34:50between the 109 and the Spit
34:52in that the undercarriage controls
34:54are nicely to hand
34:55just in front of
34:57the throttle controls
34:58and do not require
34:59that one changes hands
35:01immediately after take-off.
35:03Blind flying panel,
35:04given that it's not
35:05particularly familiar to me,
35:06looks OK,
35:07and I particularly like
35:08the artificial horizon.
35:10One can cage it
35:11and thereby keep it
35:13from damage toppling
35:15during heavy manoeuvre
35:16or possibly even
35:17fast erect it afterwards.
35:18It's a much more
35:19business-like instrument
35:20than Spitfire's.
35:22There is then of course
35:23the breech of the cannon
35:25which fires
35:25through the spinner,
35:28which seems to take up
35:29quite inordinate
35:30amounts of room.
35:32The engine gauges
35:34and fuel gauge
35:34quite reasonably easy
35:36to read,
35:37but other than that,
35:39I must return
35:42to my previous verdict
35:44on it.
35:44It is unbelievably small,
35:46unbelievably cramped,
35:47and I certainly
35:48wouldn't care
35:49to go to war in it
35:50given the knowledge
35:52that the opposition
35:53was equipped
35:54with a Spitfire.
35:55I think it's terrible.
36:07The Gustav of 1942
36:09was the most numerous
36:10variant of the
36:11Messerschmitt 109s
36:12built during the war years.
36:14It was,
36:15as has been said,
36:16produced in a third
36:16of the man-hours
36:17a Spitfire 5 required,
36:19yet it was more
36:20technically advanced.
36:21For example,
36:22its Daimler-Benz engine
36:23was fuel-injected
36:24and the airframe
36:26seems well-engineered.
36:27Tony Bianchi.
36:29Yeah, I must say
36:30it's quite an eye-opener
36:31to me.
36:31I've always been led
36:32to believe that the 109
36:33wasn't very well-made
36:34and there are all sorts
36:36of complications on it,
36:38but on first appraisal,
36:40it's certainly superb.
36:43Fuselage, for instance,
36:44is,
36:45it's got very nicely
36:46let-in skins
36:49onto a frame
36:50and they're let in
36:51very carefully
36:53and it's nicely
36:54flash-riveted.
36:55it's a second-generation
36:57monocoque aircraft
36:59and it's certainly
37:01more modern
37:01in areas.
37:05The skinning
37:06on the Spitfire
37:07is rather old-fashioned
37:09in various areas
37:10and
37:11it's quite complex
37:14as well.
37:14This is a lot more simple.
37:16There's no double-curve
37:17skins at all
37:19on the fuselage
37:19anywhere.
37:20It's all
37:21really quite easily
37:23done in the field
37:24for repair
37:24and I'm sure
37:25in manufacture
37:26it was very simple
37:27and easy.
37:28I was always
37:29under the impression
37:29they were hurried
37:31in some areas.
37:31Okay,
37:32there's some skins
37:32which haven't been
37:34particularly nicely
37:35put on
37:35but it doesn't
37:36detract away
37:37from its
37:37general quality.
37:39There's some
37:40beautiful engineering
37:41in it
37:41and
37:42some excellent
37:43quality workmanship
37:45as well.
37:46All the sort of
37:47general servicing
37:48such as
37:49removing sparking
37:50plugs
37:51is
37:51very much
37:53easier than
37:54for instance
37:54with a Merlin.
37:57Getting the lead
37:58ends
37:58on is difficult
38:00but with this
38:00it's very easily
38:01accessible.
38:02The cowlings
38:02are very easy
38:03to undo.
38:04You don't have
38:05the same problem
38:05as with a Spit
38:06for instance.
38:07Lots of cowling
38:08fasts that you
38:09usually shake
38:10into pieces
38:10and worn out.
38:11With this
38:12it's three fasteners
38:13and you undo
38:13the cowling.
38:15You can get
38:16the oil cooler
38:17easily.
38:20Wonderfully
38:20accessible.
38:22The Spitfire
38:22in its own way
38:23is
38:24a completely
38:25different
38:25sort of aircraft.
38:26This
38:27I think you'd
38:28have to be
38:28attuned to it
38:29and be used
38:30to continental
38:31aeroplanes
38:31to feel the benefit.
38:33I must say
38:33the Merlin
38:34looks old-fashioned.
38:36This engine
38:37certainly looks
38:37like
38:38looking at
38:38a German
38:39Grand Prix car
38:40of the
38:40pre-war
38:41period
38:42and it's
38:42at the moment
38:43it's beautifully
38:44clean
38:44and it's
38:46very much
38:46an engineering
38:47job.
38:48Probably
38:48over-engineered
38:49for its
38:49needs at the
38:51time.
38:53However,
38:54the ME-109s
38:55were not easy
38:56aircraft to fly.
38:57Indeed,
38:58one Luftwaffe
38:58test pilot
38:59described the
38:59landing characteristics
39:00of the Gustav
39:01as malicious.
39:03Over
39:031,500 student
39:05pilots were killed
39:06in flying accidents
39:07in 109s
39:08in the first
39:09two years
39:09of the war.
39:11No wonder
39:11congratulations
39:12were in order
39:12following a
39:13successful
39:14student's
39:14landing.
39:16But why
39:17were the
39:17ME-109s
39:18so difficult?
39:20Boscombe down
39:21test pilot
39:21Reg Hallam.
39:22Part of the
39:24problem is the
39:25geometry of this
39:25undercarriage.
39:26You can see how
39:27the legs are
39:28splayed out like
39:29that and if you
39:29do get the
39:30airplane going
39:30sideways on
39:31take-off and
39:32landing, the
39:32leg wants to
39:33dig in and
39:34cause the
39:34swing to
39:35increase.
39:36And also,
39:37there's two or
39:37three degrees of
39:38towing on the
39:39wheels and if
39:39you do get up
39:40on one wheel,
39:40the airplane
39:41wants to
39:41sort of bicycle
39:42round like
39:42that.
39:43So it's very
39:44important to
39:45keep the nose
39:45of the airplane
39:46pointing in the
39:47right direction
39:48on take-off and
39:48landing.
39:49And to be able
39:50to do that,
39:51of course,
39:51you've got to
39:51see, you
39:52need to be
39:53able to see
39:53out to the
39:54front well and
39:55that's just what
39:56you don't have
39:56in this
39:57airplane.
39:57So you've
39:58got to work
39:58particularly hard
39:59in looking left
40:00and right on
40:01take-off and
40:01landing to
40:02keep your
40:02directional
40:03control.
40:04An interesting
40:05feature is this
40:06leading-edge
40:06slat.
40:07You should be
40:08able to push
40:08it in with
40:08one finger.
40:09They operate
40:10automatically
40:10when you're
40:11pulling the
40:12airplane hard
40:13in maneuver
40:13or flying it
40:14slowly.
40:15And what
40:15happens is they
40:16pop out like
40:17that and then
40:17high-energy
40:18air goes through
40:19this slot and
40:20over the upper
40:21surface of the
40:21wing and you
40:22get extra lift
40:23that way.
40:24They're very
40:25gentle and benign
40:26in operation.
40:27They work very
40:28smoothly and even
40:29if they operate
40:30asymmetrically, one
40:31before the other,
40:32you don't get any of
40:32those nasty snatch
40:34rolls that you can
40:34get on some
40:35airplanes that have
40:36this design feature.
40:37They're very, very
40:39smooth handling
40:39devices.
40:43Mortar, 1942.
40:45The island is
40:46under siege and
40:47the only defenders
40:48are few war-weary
40:50hurricanes which
40:50are totally
40:51outclassed.
41:01Spitfire 5s were
41:02flown from carriers
41:03and Mortar became
41:04a repeat of the
41:05Battle of Britain.
41:07This unique gun
41:08camera film shows
41:09a Spitfire 5
41:10caught over
41:10Mortar outturning
41:12its German
41:12opponent under
41:13relentless fire
41:14to emerge
41:15unscathed.
41:24Spitfires had
41:24turned the air
41:25battle.
41:26The siege was
41:27lifted and soon
41:28Spitfires flew from
41:29Mortar to support
41:30the 8th Army
41:31as bombers.
41:31An RAF Spitfire
41:37pilot who fought
41:38the Messerschmitts
41:39over Mortar,
41:40Nadi Lucas.
41:41We always had a
41:42very high regard
41:43for them,
41:44109 Fs and Gs
41:46as we had there
41:47in 1942.
41:48And the Luftwaffe
41:50flew them awfully
41:51well.
41:52They got the most
41:53they could out of
41:54these airplanes.
41:55They flew them
41:55very fast with
41:56these open line
41:59abreast fours,
42:00pairs of aircraft
42:01and fours.
42:02And they were
42:03really very good
42:03indeed.
42:04But I don't know
42:04that any of our
42:05fellows would have
42:06preferred this to
42:07a Spitfire 5,
42:08which is what we
42:08had then.
42:09And of course,
42:10later on you got
42:11the Spitfire 9,
42:12which was a
42:12wonderful airplane.
42:13But on the whole,
42:14the thing, as you
42:15know very well,
42:16went from one
42:17airplane to another,
42:19one side got the
42:20ascendant and then
42:21the other passed
42:22to the other and so
42:23on.
42:23And this aircraft,
42:25which lasted
42:25throughout the war,
42:27was an exceptionally
42:28good airplane.
42:28I don't think
42:29there's any question
42:29of it.
42:31Well, I've never
42:33found a Spitfire
42:34pilot yet who
42:35wasn't prepared to
42:36take on a
42:36Moshe Spit 109F or
42:37G in his Spitfire
42:395.
42:43But the problem
42:44came, and I can
42:45remember it so well,
42:46at the end of 1941,
42:48early part of 1942,
42:49suddenly these
42:50Fock Wolf 190s
42:51appeared.
42:52And that was a
42:53different couple of
42:54fish.
42:54I mean, we had
42:55three or so terrible
42:57months with the
42:58Fives against the
42:59Fock Wolf 190s,
43:00because they were
43:00definitely superior.
43:02I mean, up to about
43:0322,000 or 23,000 feet.
43:04They really were, and
43:05it was a very, very
43:06rough time indeed.
43:08The Fock Wolf 190,
43:09the butcher bird as it
43:10was called, was
43:11indeed formidable.
43:13Its 1,700 horsepower
43:15BMW radial engine gave
43:17it a speed of over
43:17400 miles per hour.
43:19It was agile, very
43:21well-armed, and
43:22completely outclassed
43:23the 365 mile per hour
43:25Spitfire 5.
43:26It was considered a
43:27most serious threat to
43:29the RAF, whose hard-won
43:30air superiority was
43:32suddenly cast into
43:33doubt.
43:36But then, with the
43:39genius of supermarines
43:41and Rolls-Royce, they
43:42introduced the Spitfire
43:439 with the Merlin 61
43:46series, the 61 and the
43:4766 engine with the
43:48two-speed, two-stage
43:50blower, which came in
43:53at, oh, as I remember
43:53it, 14,000 and then
43:55with 23 or 24,000 feet
43:57and really put some G
43:58behind it.
43:59And the thing was, I
44:00mean, that, of course,
44:02the Fock Wolf 190
44:03pilots, who'd had a
44:04field day with us in
44:05the 5s, with the
44:06Merlin 45s, they saw
44:08these aircraft, these
44:10Spitfire 9s, they
44:11didn't know they were
44:119s at all.
44:12They thought they were
44:125s.
44:13They thought they were
44:13going to have another
44:14field day.
44:14And then, Johnny
44:15Johnson and all these
44:16fellas with these
44:17Canadians and the 9s
44:18there, simply took the
44:19pants off them and
44:20they never knew what
44:21hit them.
44:22The Spitfire 9 was the
44:23first major variant to
44:25exceed 400 miles per
44:26hour, the speed of the
44:27S6Bs of 1931.
44:30Spitfire production at
44:31Castle Brummidge
44:32peaks at 320 a month.
44:34We absolutely depended on
44:37the Americans for our
44:39whole rearmament program
44:40and the Spitfire included.
44:42We depended on them for
44:43the advanced machine tools
44:45that fabricated the
44:46engines and the airframes.
44:48We depended on them for
44:49the Browning machine guns.
44:51We actually depended on
44:52them enormously for
44:53instruments and
44:54instrument panels because,
44:56in a word, the poor old
44:58Brits at that time had a
44:59rather weak, high
45:00technology industry in terms
45:02of machine tools and
45:03instruments.
45:04It just had to be imported.
45:07Of course, we did buy
45:08those magnificent Pratt &
45:10Whitney jig borers and so
45:12on, which were the best in
45:13the world.
45:13And the Germans bought them
45:15too.
45:15And so did the French.
45:17So that the Americans were
45:19producing those things.
45:20But we delivered a lot of
45:21things the other way.
45:23Nobody had a monopoly of the
45:24best ideas before the war or
45:26even during the war.
45:27And we were well, of course,
45:29the Americans didn't have a
45:31fighter worth anything until
45:33the Mustang came along with
45:35the Merlin engine to a
45:36British specification.
45:38So it was a two-way road.
45:41One of the problems of
45:42British industry during the
45:43war was that it was even
45:45then bedeviled by ghost
45:47lows and unofficial strikes.
45:50And therefore, aircraft
45:51production tended to suffer
45:52quite a bit.
45:53Not much, as it appears, in
45:56terms of the overall numbers.
45:57But just enough disruption
45:59to cause quite a lot of
46:00alarm to the government at
46:01the time.
46:02They had some unrest, but
46:04nothing serious.
46:06There were no major strikes,
46:07no.
46:08They were just really getting
46:10into the ideas of what
46:12mass production or what for
46:14those days was mass
46:15production was all about.
46:17And of course, there were a
46:18few problems to run out.
46:19But they weren't held up.
46:21And the fact that twice as
46:24many Spitfires and
46:24Hurricanes together were built
46:26during the Battle of Britain
46:27compared with the Germans'
46:29output of Messerschmitt shows
46:32that it wasn't too bad an
46:33effort anyway.
46:34As Spitfires were built under
46:36pressures of war, what
46:37problems did they pose on
46:39their first flight?
46:40Chief Test Pilot Alec Henshaw.
46:42We had plenty of aircraft that
46:44gave trouble.
46:45But that's what our job was for, was
46:48to find out what the trouble was, to
46:50locate it and put it right.
46:54I should think very little trouble
46:57with the fuselage as such.
47:02Possibly some troubles with the
47:05engine at times, like skew gear
47:06failure.
47:07You could fly an aircraft on test
47:09probably three, four times.
47:12It'd be perfectly okay.
47:13And then at normal revs, normal
47:14boost, the engine would suddenly
47:16stop because the two magnetos
47:17had been cut off.
47:19But I think possibly, apart from the
47:22skew gears, piston failure was
47:24probably the most disconcerting,
47:27depending on when the engine
47:28suffered its damage.
47:30I did have one in a dive that the
47:36piston seized, the whole engine
47:38seized, and then because we were in
47:39the dive, with the prop thrust
47:41loading, overloading the bearers,
47:44the engine and the cowlings were
47:47starting to break up and fly around.
47:49And before I knew where I was, I'd
47:51been flung out also.
47:58Spitfires flew in every theatre
48:00throughout the war.
48:02Long-range versions flew
48:03photographic reconnaissance to
48:05record post-raid bomb damage and
48:07to locate targets for fighter
48:09sweeps over northern France with
48:11hundreds of Spitfires attacking
48:12targets of opportunity as a
48:14prelude to invasion.
48:15sea fires flew from carriers on every
48:32ocean, including the Pacific.
48:38There were, of course, pretenders to the throne,
48:41the North American Mustang.
48:42The early versions, however, were confined
48:45by the poor altitude performance of their
48:48American Allison engines to a low-level
48:50ground-attack role.
48:51But later versions, with Rolls-Royce Merlins, became
49:00excellent long-range escort fighters.
49:04Hawker Tempests, with their complex 24-cylinder Napier
49:08Sabre engines, were used against the first jets, the V-1
49:12flying bombs, as were Spitfires.
49:18350 V-1s were shot down by fighters, though attacking a V-1 was never popular.
49:24As the Allied armies advanced, Spitfires operated from makeshift forward air
49:33troops. These are flying with the 12th U.S. Air Force in North Africa, some of the 350 Spitfires given to the United States.
49:42As the war ended, Spitfires flew in celebration. They had served with distinction from the first
49:47day of the war to the last.
49:49I mean, you ask me what was the best fighter aircraft in the war. I mean, for the purposes
49:54that we used it for, the Spitfire was outstanding.
49:57They would linger onto the jet age, well into the 50s, the last on meteorological
50:03flights.
50:10Their day is done. Though three Spits will be kept by the RAF for Battle of Britain
50:14Flypasts, commemorating the battle they did so much to win.
50:20The rest were scrapped.
50:23Or, like that first Spitfire, used for target practice.
50:32But no more. Any Spitfire is now pure gold. At a secret workshop in Hampshire, not far from
50:39where the first were built, there is more than nostalgia to be found.
50:43In these workshops, skilled men are building and rebuilding by hand, Spitfires for customers
50:58across the world. There's a long waiting list, and they cost a good deal more than the wartime
51:03price of around 6,000 pounds. Strangely, the name Spitfire was disliked
51:10by Mitchell. Bloody silly, he called it. An alternative, seriously considered, was Shrew. Hurricanes
51:17and Shrews. Shrew Fund. A squadron of Shrews. We could have lost the war.
51:22We could have lost the war.
51:29He may be found...
51:33You took a chance...
51:38You took a năm...
51:40Your手...
51:41Your thought, yes to me by the way.
51:44Your...
51:46Your fingers...
51:48... you but you're not.
51:49The merits and deep
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