One of the major advantage the Rafale has over the Eurofighter is that the Rafale is marketed by the French only, while the EF has 3 different marketing departments !! do they coordinate their efforts? thats the big question..

Just to set things straight, with apologies for the drift. Watson-Watt may have visited Germany in 1936, but if he went to look at Freya and Wurzburg radars he would have been disappointed as he was several years too early. Where is your made-up history ‘well documented’? ‘Meanwhile’ (as you put it) he had practically demonstrated the radio location of an aircraft in 1935.

To get back a little more to the thread, the Spitfire was operational for the duration, served in many roles and theatres, remained effective against the opposition through development that increased performance and armourment throughout the war (the actual war, not just the bit after the failure to defend Pearl Harbour). It was pretty good, and not even slightly American. You’ll just have to get over it, Merlin2

(It was arguably a little bit Canadian, however)

My made up story is documented in his own book Three Steps to Victory that he visited Germany in 1936 ! perhaps Sir Watson Watt has made up his own story who knows ?
Your other assumption is also untrue. Admiral Raeder, the German Navy’s Commander-in-Chief, saw in 1935 demonstrations of the radar’s ability to spot from a fixed shore location ships at a range of twelve miles and Germany gave the green light for FREYA radar in 1935 .. Reginald Victor Jones book ‘Most Secret War ‘ provides more detail about British intelligence trying to gather information on Freya Radar systems if you are interested.

”It was pretty good, and not even slightly American. You’ll just have to get over it, Merlin2”

I don’t have to get over anything mate, you have your views,and I have mine, it was pretty good? who knows nobody said it was crap but it was certainly neither a war-winning fighter as claimed by so many widely exagerrated documentaries nor it had any impact on the outcome of the ww2. ”Not even slightly American is a remark that has little to do with the topic about Spitfire being overrated fighter ” I can only imagine you typed it without even thinking..

Look up ‘Cavity magnetron’ or ‘Tizard’

My friend the Cavity magnetron was invented by Germans long before Birmingham university scientists.. Hitler didn’t support the Project because German military considered the frequency drift of Hollman’s device to be undesirable, and based their radar systems on the klystron instead but klystrons could not at that time achieve the high power output that magnetrons eventually reached.Good for the allies and bad for Germans.

http://www.radartutorial.eu/04.history/pub/US2123728A.pdf

The question why it was brought to the US by Tizard was not without reason, a brilliant American inventor Percy Spencer had invented a revolutionary method of how to manufacture it in huge numbers.
I quote: At that time, magnetrons were used to generate the microwave radio signals that are the core mechanism of radar, and they were being made at the rate of 17 per day at Raytheon. While working there, Spencer developed a more efficient way to manufacture them, by punching out and soldering together magnetron parts, rather than using machined parts. It also saw Spencer’s staff rise from 15 employees to 5,000 over the course of the next few years. His improvements were among those that increased magnetron production to 2,600 per day.

That was the main reason why it was brought to the US, to the Radiation Labs of MIT…This is the real history, maybe there is another version but as far as I know this is the universally accepted version.

”The US may have had radar before they entered the war. That is not the same as having it before the British”.

I don’t deny this and I never said that RADAR was invented in the US or anywhere else , as a matter of fact no country can claim that they invented the radar singlehandedly as the most comprehensive radar information site in Europe confirms

http://www.radartutorial.eu/04.history/hi04.en.html

Robert Watson Watt didn’t invent the radar as claimed by many British sources which is absolutely ridiculous but with his Home Chain he was the first to demonstrate that it could detect a vehicle in flight which means he was the first to invent a brand new application of the RADAR as early warning system . But in the meantime, the Germans had developed their own version, the Freya radar system in Germany which was even more advanced than the British home chain in terms of tracking speed and range but it was the Brits WHO used it first successfully as defensive weapon simple because they were defending their airspace and Germany was attacking.

Sir Watson WATT travelled to Germany in 1936 as tourist in order to gain more information about the Freya and Würzburg radar systems because he knew Germans were ahead in radar technology this is well documented
it is a fair statement that the British did not invent radar, or even the cavity magnetron. But they took the existing research, even patented ideas, and developed them into very efficient weapon systems , that gave them a critical lead at a critical time..

I’ve always thought of the Mustang as being at least 50% British (that’s the best bit). British design spec. British engine. Named by the Brits. Built in America. Best of all, not wanted – at the beginning – by the Americans !

Hard to get more British than that without a chorus of “Land of Hope and Glory”.

I would say probably 15 % British and this goes to the Rolls Royce Merlin licenced to Packard WHO made the engine with some significant modifications, designed by North American I believe the designer was a German born American I don’t recall his name but its not difficult to find. I am fairly good at mathematics but I still can’t figure out how did you arrive at 50% … And don’t forget that the original P-51’s were powered by Allison V-1710, an excellent engine suitable for missions other than high altitude long range bomber escort …

I came across this thread by chance and I felt the need to contrıbute …Yes, the Spitfire was by far the most overrated and inflated fighter in ww2 or even in history,in contrast to popular myth,it didn’t even play a decisive role in BoB as Hawker Hurricane killed more enemy aircraft than Spit.. Even if the RAF had fought without a single Spit, the result would have been the same as the German Luftwaffe didn’t have any viable concept to win the war .The ME-109 had fuel injection, and had to just climb to escape from a Spitfire. The 109´s biggest enemy was it´s lack of range when flying to Britain . German pilots worried more about lack of fuel than Spitfires as they had only 15 minutes time for aerial combat before returning to their bases in France. In many cases they had to break engagement and hurry up for France when they were dangerously low on fuel and after the BoB it was all P-51 Mustang that made the difference in European theatre as Spit lacked the range to escort bombers into German heartland. Spitfires enjoyed other advantages during the battle, since the whole thing was taking place in British airspace every damaged German fighter meant total loss, the aircraft and the pilot. if pilot survived, it meant imprisonment for the rest of the war. Brits enjoyed huge advantage, damaged RAF fighters could be repeared and pilots who survived the crash by either landing the damaged aircraft in one piece or jumping with parachutes were available for next days mission this was a huge advantage so all things considered the RAF was never hopelessly outnumbered. Who created the Spitfire myth ?? honestly speaking nobody knows but is you repeat the same old myth generation after generation, it suddenly becomes a reality in the minds of people.

TSR-2 was an extremely overhyped aircraft, infact quite possibly the most over hyped aircraft of all time. So many show stopping issues coupled with performance that was good in some areas and not good enough in others. Thankfully it was binned.

The aircraft had never proved itself ,utterly failed o achieve what it was suppose to . Only 4 prototypes were built and none of them achieved full operational capability as they had been experiencing serious technical problems ! Everything about TSR-2 was on the paper. It remained as a concept only ,just like the XB-7O Valkrie .

LOL Nobody is surprised..Tim Clark ordered them in order to put pressure on Boeing to go ahead with 777X …He doesn’t need Airbus order anymore .Futher cancellations are expected ..777X kicks A350-1000’s butt badly.

Came as no surpise considering Brazil’s current economic problems and internal problems, the price is the most important factor.