if they land as slow as I’ve been told (about 75 MPH?)

Right Patty I’m going to get a bit technical now so if you can’t keep up just ask and I’ll explain again more slowly.

According to ‘British Flight Testing. Martlesham Heath 1920-1939 by Tim Mason published by Putnam 1993 Spitfire Mk.I K9787 was tested at Martlesham in early 1939 and the landing speed was measured at 60 MPH. This particular aircraft was fitted with the early type two-pitch three blade propellor and a Rolls Royce Merlin II engine.
Has anyone got information on the landing speeds for later marks?
Cheers
Andy

JDK

Big Fella
your obvious deep concern for a fellow human being moves me greatly.
You’re all heart.
I can spare 25p towards the ransom. I’ve also got some old French Francs and German Marks we can put in the collection.
I reckon we could raise at least £3.96!!!
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Fuel tank breather pipes I think–anyone?? :confused:

Dave
I’ll have a go at answering that one too.
If you think technology moved fast in WW2 then it probably moved even faster in the great War.
It’s therefore somewhat difficult to measure types against each other.
The Fokker DR.I for instance was a 1917 design that was rushed into service after triplanes became the vogue in Germany after the appearance of the Sopwith Triplane the previous year. All the major German manufactures had a go at designing a triplane and most of the results were truly horrible. Previously most German manufacturers had had a stab at designing sesquiplane designs after the fashion of the French Nieuport.
I think Fokker succeeded because he tended to court famous fighter pilots to get them to say nice things about his aircraft; he was also an opportunist and tended to have a knack of getting the best deals around. An example of this was the way that the entire output of the very good 185HP BMW engine that was the preferred power-plant for the Fokker D.VII was channelled to Fokker. I think it could be safely argued that if that engine had been available to other manufactures we might now be wondering if the Pfalz D.XII or the Roland D.VI was the best fighter. The Germans generally and Fokker in particular had terrible quality control problems from the mid war period onwards. This was often caused by the increasing shortage of raw materials in Germany but in the case of Fokker in poor workmanship at sub-contracting companies (usually also owned by Mr Fokker—smell a rat here?).
So what’s all this leading up to you ask.
Well, as you can see the German system of aircraft procurement was somewhat chaotic and was based on patronage and not a little greasing of palms.
So maybe the best aircraft never saw service.
If I was asked what was the best German fighter to get into and fight an air battle was I’d have to say the Fokker D.VII fitted with 185HP BMW.
So maybe we should ask what was the best engine not what was the best fighter.
Melv, help me out here, Please!!!
🙁 🙁 🙁

“Isn’t Lend/Lease a wonderful thing? What would you have done without us yanks!”

Had a lot less illegitimate children to contend with for a start Patty.
Over paid
Over Sexed
and
Over Here.

😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 🙂 🙂 🙂 😉 😉 😉

Ailerons.

F6F
Thanks for answering the ailerons question.
I’ve often wondered about that.
Cheers
Andy 🙂

Taube and Spin.

Mike
any chance of scans of the Spin and Taube??
I went to the Berlin Technical museum in 2002 but they were having a new aircraft hall built at the time and all aviation exhibits were in storage pending new displays.
It’ll be a while before I’m in Berlin again and it was the Taube I really wanted to see.
Any Chance??
Andy

Preserved.

Thanks for that Mike.
Knowing that you have ‘connections’ there you’ll have to take me on a tour there one of these days. You keep posting tantalising snippets of what’s contained in museums in Poland. How about a thread on it?
See you Saturday
Andy

PS Dave there’s also an AEG G.IV in a museum in Canada. I can’t remember which museum at the moment but I’m sure a quick Google will put you in the right direction.
The AEG type wasn’t used to bomb the UK but was used in fairly substantial numbers to bomb behind the lines in France including what we would now call strategic bombing of towns and cities.