“what we need is someone who knows how to fly a plane and who didn’t have fish for lunch”

Watching old wartime gun camera footage there’s always two or three fw190’s getting a wing blown off in flight. So was the 190 prone to loosing a wing under fire?

Lets pretend we are fighting an exactly equal conflict.
Equal in all respects. Pilot skill, tactics, aircraft ability, battlefield, radar etc.
Then the 109 will always win. Because in this sort of war we are talking a war of attrition and the deciding factor will be the time to build the aircraft.
The 109 was easier and quicker to build than the Spitfire.

Leaving aside production I say both aircraft were equal. Didn’t Sailor Malan and Werner Molders engage in a dogfight during the BoB and wasn’t the battle inconclusive? Two aces, two comparable aircraft, no result.

My own opinion is that the Spitfire was better for two reasons. 1) British. 2) We won the war.

FSX ATC gets it wrong lots of times. It’s not uncommon to be overtaken by a heavy when on finals, be flown into a mountain, given ludicrous approaches of 30 or 40 miles.

Hi Richard,

They’re just the normal “skymarker” flares. Sometimes dropped in singles or pairs from a ship, these ones would appear to be from a couple of Lead Ships directly preceding the one from which the film is taken.

Interesting film.

Regards,
Graham

What’s the purpose of the flares. Are they just a visual queue to start dropping, or do they mark the target? What happens if the flares miss?