Most beautiful machine ever?

[Cliphead]

The spitfire is a good candidate.


Did you Know ?
sorry but military history is my speciality

did you know that the Germans captured a few spits. just as we captured a few messerschmitts.They flew them, and we flew theirs, then they evaluated them and worked out the best way to bring them down.
They had the captured spits painted up in German livery, and occasionally had them painted back, in RAF livery to make propoganda film of them being valiantly defeated by the luftwaffe.
Just as we had captured planes being shot down by 'the few' on film.
(im not saying all the footage was fake, just some of it).

The point of all this, is that there were top pilots who flew both aircraft. So if the battle of Britain was won by superior command and control, intelligence and luck, and the spitfire was not actually that much good, these blokes would know.
And their message was clear, the RAF and the luftwaffe pilots who flew both planes said the spitfire was by far the better plane for dogfighting. due to a thousand little design advantages

I'll never get to fly one but, well just but...

[EternalOptimist]

I'll never get to fly one but, well just but...

ah yes. you fly.

not just a rhetorical question then

[Cliphead]

ah yes. you fly.

not just a rhetorical question then

I just lost my license cos of my eyes. Fck the CAA, I'm gonna get one of these and fly it anyway.

[Zippy]

Oh bollocks. I'm so sorry CH

[Cliphead]

Oh bollocks. I'm so sorry CH

Nae worries, got a fleet of drones ready to fly with an Arduino based autopilot with video cameras and I'm gonna get that ultralight thing and fly it out of a field. Who's gonna know?

[nomadd]

Female Robot Geminoid F - Better Than Your Girlfriend! - YouTube

Spooky.

[EternalOptimist]

purely off the top of me head here. harking back to what I read 30 years ago.

Flying a messerschmitt was difficult because of a lack of cockpit space. Pilots had to be thin and short.
Imagine driving your car wearing a straight jacket, flying one of those planes was not comfortable.

The germans who evaluated the spit were amazed at the extra inch at each elbow. The brits could take things with them, and utilise them, like gloves or a butty.

Second thing I recall from reading, was the width of the undercarriage. The wheels on the spit were under the wing, which gave great stability. If you lost a wheel, there was a wide margin for balancing the plane down.
The messerschmitts wheels were central, under the fuselage. They were very unstable, suceptible to cross winds, and the slightest hitch meant a crash landing.

The spit was indeed a beauty

[Cliphead]

The spit was indeed a beauty

As every pilot who ever flew one said.

[Ted Goat]

Has to be the Deltic diesel locos that used to ply the East Coast line from Kings Cross to Edinburgh.

Those throbbing twin Napiers were something to behold.

[EternalOptimist]

I just lost my license cos of my eyes. Fck the CAA, I'm gonna get one of these and fly it anyway.

are you still on that boat ?