#11
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The Spitfire and Me109 and zero and others were designed before the war, but they were commisioned because war was expected. Same with radar.
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Scott in Montreal |
#12
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The Hawker Hurricane first took to the skies in 1935 also. I see a lot more Spifire in the Hurricane, than I do in the H1. I do see an extended Zero in the H1 though!
Didn't Hughes make a plane that looked remarkably similar to the Devhavalland Mosquito? Matt |
#13
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I recall a television show in balck and white during my pre-teens that tracked the progression of fighter development leading up to WW-II, Wish I had access to it now.
:^)
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Marc |
#14
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You're thinking of the FX-11, the one in which he crashed and thus began his mental decline.
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Bill Longyard Winston-Salem, NC |
#15
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These things are quite deceiving. All the aforementioned airplanes were low wing, low drag monoplanes with retractable landing gear. We look at the outlines and shapes and we tend to think that these things were the core elements of the "design". But they weren't really other than the basic configuration. I don't know who was the first to have this configuration but that is only a small part of it. The Hurricane was built like the Hawker Hart, Hind, Demon etc - it was steel tube with cross bracing, wooden formers and fabric. The engineering on the spitfire was very different - monocoque fuselage, wing spars made from concentric square tubes separated by shear webs. Then there was the Zero, which everyone says was a copy of the H1. It was the best fighter at the beginning of the war by far. It had better climb, maneuverability and incredible range - up to 10 hrs with drop tanks. The spit and ME109 had 1.5hrs endurance at best. Why? Because the zero was so light. Why? Because it used magnesium forgings. Nobody else was doing that. Also, it didn't have armor plate, which helped. My point is that the devil is in the details and you often can't see them from the surface. Just because the fin shape was the same on the zero and another airplane doesn't mean the it is a copy. In fact the fin shape doesn't really mean very much at all. The Japanese didn't keep developing the Zero so by the time the corsair and hellcat came along it was outclassed. But at the beginning of the war nothing could touch it.
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Scott in Montreal Last edited by sblack; 02-20-2019 at 01:55 PM. |
#16
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Nothing could touch it if you fought its fight.
The advantage went to the US when the fighter pilots wisely fought them only at higher speeds, the controls on the Zero stiffened up and they couldn't maneuver well. Advantage US !
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Marc |
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