My point about the Hurricane being an outdated design was an extended answer to this – the Hurricane had a more diverse career because it was no longer suited to its original design purpose.

Not necessarily. If I may quote D. Weston Burt, Sq. Ldr no. 6 Squadron on the tankbusting MkIID ‘The ‘S’ gun was (with one exception) the biggest calibre weapon to be carried in any RAF aircraft and the Hurricane had been found to be the best aerial platform upon which to mount it’. In short, you can’t adapt an unsuitable design. Where were the droves of tank busting Defiants? Or rocket firing Gladiators? I’d like to know if the dainty Spitfire could be stressed to take the ‘can opener’ gun.

The Hurricane remained in frontline service until 1947, when rocket firing examples were used, I believe, in Palestine. There were enough other aircraft to replace them but they held on because they were tough, popular with crews (some in the last squadron to use them, can’t remember which, sorry, refused to give them up in favour of Spitfire MkIXs or Tempests), could be used to mount just about any weapon (same weight of bombs as a Blenheim, rockets, Vickers ‘S’ gun etc.) and could take plenty of punishment both from the enemy and from the user and be patched up to fight again.

A note on ubiquity; this did not spring from nowhere – it was the qualities of the aircraft that enabled its use in such large numbers in so many diverse theatres. It was used, perhaps in not more theatres/campaigns than the Spitfire, but in greater numbers and in some cases more success. It was a tough, well armed and easily serviced aircraft which survived the Western desert and the Russian winter. Oh, and its ability to be built in large numbers from the off probably saved the free world. It could even be flown off – and landed on – aircraft carriers with no specialist equipment and training, then operated from semi-prepared fields.

We’re onto quality again, but I fail to see entirely how the two can be separated. The quantity is in part a mark of the quality.

From my memory, the first aces of WWII:
Stanislaw Skalski in PZL P.11
Hannes Gentzen in Bf 109
ah, but we are not talking Jerries…

Lieutenant Commander William Paulet Lucy R.N., killed in May 1940 in Norway with seven victories and two damaged to his credit. On the Blackburn Skua!!!!!

Did any Spitfires, or for that matter Hurricanes, end up in German hands during WWII and were any flown “in anger” as it where?

Several were captured and evaluated (a canvas winged Hurricane in the Battle of France, a Spitfire MkVb force landed on the French coast in 1941 and was repaired, several Hurricanes in the North African desert) but I’m not aware of any being flown against the allies in combat – though I believe this happened both ways round with Finland and Russia… Don’t have any details, but can check on the Hurricanes this evening. At least one was painted in Luftwaffe markings, I suspect more were.

FD.2

The design team at Fairey broke the habits of a lifetime with that beauty. What a corker. 😀

Best wishes
Steve P

Good call. The Air Ministry stuck with the habit of a lifetime by not ordering it.

Fabulous aircraft though, and a proper plane – not like those Bell X-planes that broke up if you tried to deviate from a straight line.

Pilatus P-2 and Stampe – Last Crusade

Ford Trimotor in ‘Temple of Doom’

Someone mentioned Tales of the Golden Monkey – does anyone, anyone, know where I might be able to get this on DVD or video? It was my absolute favouritest programme at the age of seven and I haven’t seen it anywhere since.

Apparently there is quite a well known photograph of what purports to be a Ju87 still flying despite having had its undercarriage knocked off, which was used as a propaganda demonstration of the strength of German aircraft. This was actually one of the navalised versions and the incident is true – it hit something after pulling out from a dive which ripped the jettisonable undercart off – but the photograph is a fake.

Although the idea of a navalised Bf109 seems merely to be made for landing accidents (though I believe that the main undercarriage was more widely spaced and retracted inwards) the thought of a carrier based gruppe of Stukas makes me wonder how much harder life would have been for the British Mediterranean fleet – especially given the pounding Illustrious took from Stukas (where her armoured deck undoubtedly saved her and any other carrier in the world would unquestionably have been sunk – in any case, Illustrious was out of the war for a year).

A fin:

😉

I think you’ll find that this is….

…sorry, my mistake

I admit I awaited the restored Walton score with some anticipation, partly because the ‘Battle in the Air’ sequence is possibly one of the best pieces of film set to music ever and partly because I have always been nostalgic for the days when ‘proper’ composers (i.e. those that didn’t necessarily specialise in film music like you get these days) like Walton, Vaughan-Williams and Malcolm Arnold wrote film scores.

I think like most people I found parts of it like a totally different film, some good, others disappointing. The opening with the Ju52 is much more menacing, and the ‘march’ is less jolly than the usual version, and probably more fitting (if less catchy). The flip side is that Walton has nothing to match Ron Goodwin’s main ‘Spitfire’ theme, which ultimately is so iconic that it’s interesting the film stands up so well without it.

I actually liked the ‘don’t you shout at me Mr Warwick!’ sequence with no music telling me how to feel and just the sound of the burning hangar in the background, but again that scene is so iconic I can imagine how it would seem wrong to many.