JtD,
There is no such thing as a "hands off aircraft". There is such a thing as a speed stable aircraft.
All of the aircraft in that list were speed stable.
That means they all moved to trim speed and stayed there unless acted upon by an outside force. The airplane does not care about its relationship to the horizon, altitude, or where the pilots hands are at. It cares about the relative wind and the dynamic pressure. A speed stable aircraft will maintain its orientation to the relative wind and keep the dynamic pressure constant.
This is not something the early Mark Spitfires did. If you look at the stability characteristics as measured by the RAE and the NACA, the Spitfire INCREASED speed away from trim.
Each oscillation, the speed would increase or stay the same where neutral stability existed.
That is a fact. There is no putting on rose colored glasses or claims of "it was normal for an aircraft".
The Spitfire was outstanding in its early instability. That is why they fixed it with the addition of an inertial elevator.
It was not because it was normal, or good, or super maneuverable. It was because it had some dangerous characteristics and made the aircraft more difficult to precisely control for the average pilot.
End of story.
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