Battle Of Britain

[dibble1]

I'm about to watch this well loved favourite of mine again but how true to life is it? I've heard conflicting views. One well read friend says it's virtually bang on historically and another saying it very far off the mark. Any thoughts?

[Zacs-Master]

I do know that the ME 109 was a match for the Spit and out gunned it considerably, despite the hype about the latter.

[tonyav]

The ME 109 could out climb the Spit and Hurricane also, something to do with the ME 109 having fuel injection and the Spit and the Hurricane only having carburetors.

[paddywak]

Also while the Spitfire was the plane that got the glory the Hurricane was the plane that did the job
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/battle-of-britain-week-was-the-hurricane-the-plane-247944

[heathfield]

That use of carburetors meant the Spitfire and Hurricane couldn't fly inverted for more than about 10 seconds of level flight before the engine would cut out, whereas Me109 pilots were able to, and did, adopt inverted flight in attacks on B17 bombers. This meant they were able to use the underside of their plane as something of a shield against the B17's guns, instead of their cockpit being in full view of the gunners. Apparently around 10% of fighter pilots were on leave during the Battle of Britain. On phoning their bases to ask if they were required, they were told to stay where they were. Could have been because there weren't enough aircraft for them, but it's something that was hushed up.

[dibble1]

MANY THANKS ALL

[Peter Pedant]

I remember seeing this when it first came out -
the old fighter pilots didnt obviously complain

Me 109s were better armoured (much better)
but I thought the Spitfires could out-turn a Me - [turn inside it]

I thought Spitfires were 10% faster than Me's
this was due to the cooling system devised by Paravicini ( whom I knew as a 5 y o but I didnt realise what he'd done ] .
The cooling system has negative drag. [ yes really - knowing that you can now work out how he did it ] [ cooling air was allowed to expand and vented out the back creating a jetty propulsion thingey ] [ propulsion equals negative drag ] of around about 10%

This parallel devt of a principle by two or three independents has a name - the biological equiv is parallel evolution