Spitfires · 3:50pm May 29th, 2017
On Saturday I was passing through Southampton. I took a quick visit to the Solent Sky museum, which exhibits some of the historic aircraft built in the city. Exhibit No. 1 is the Spitfire.
This is also something of a shrine to the cult of R.J. Mitchell (1895-1937), the engineer who designed the legendary aircraft. The story goes that by creating a fighter with superior performance, he allowed the RAF to win the Battle of Britain, thwarted the Nazi invasion of England, ensured the allies had a base to launch an invasion of occupied Europe, and thus saved the free world, and showed that wars are won not by tough guys with guns, but by math and physics nerds with slide rules. Great story.
At one time, many aspiring young engineers kept a photograph of Mitchell, and a model Spitfire, in their bedroom.
And now, that name is closely associated with one of the most divisive characters in a cartoon for little girls.
Speaking of, R.J. Mitchell x Spitfire shipfic. Somebody get on that.
Many peoples efforts in the background went to supporting the poor sods in the firing line in stopping the other guy wanting to stop the people in the background being free to do what they were dong.
The elliptical wing of the Spitfire was shaped as such, ebcause according to fluid mechanics, it was teh shape that lead to a zero wingtip pressure differential, and so zero wing vortex drag?
Confusing, if you use the vortex sum method of calculating lift and drag.
It was a very British aircraft, created by genius and manufactured in relatively small numbers, designed to be elegant and nimble in the air like the German Bf 109...
And completely overwhelmed in the last half of the war as US P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Thuds dominated the sky, cranked out in immense numbers by US manufacturing, where the heavily armored P-47 took on the ground support role that the delicate Spitfire could never do, and the supercharged P-51 escorted bombers deep into Germany far, far beyond the range of the Spitfire.
US production of aircraft during WW2: 300,000
Quantity has its own Quality.
4551269
To be fair, the P-51 was a pretty quality piece of equipment as well, and the P-47 was outrageously durable. Quantity AND quality.
Also, I think the P-51 used an engine design derived from the Royles-Royce Merlin engine, which was definitely British engineered.
4551269
When it comes to building a legend, neither quality nor quantity matter as much as whether it makes a good story.
4552228 And darnit if I won't always love Spitfires because of a Battle of Britain video game I played when I was 6 or 7 some 22+ years ago