I Want my 4.09 Spit FM's back.........

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by Corto

Here is the BBC Doc:
For the Spit enthusiasts: Part 4 is the part were they talk about the advantages and disadvantages of Spit vs 109...

-------------------------
Spit vs Me 109 Part 4 from Min. 3 sec 20....

Spit 14.7 sec of fire Pee Shooter Ammo vs Me 109 55 sec of fire.. nearly 4 times as long!

If this and other facts are modeld in Olegs "realistic Simulation" "Cliffs of Dover".... no one will fly spit.....
---

I will.

I saw that documentary when it was aired, very good. As above, explaining the 109 has cannon and 55 seconds is misleading, but regardless, it had the better guns. But again, as above, that's no good when you're on the wrong end.

There was little else in that documentary to say that a 109 will do better (please quote from in if you disagree). Hans Ekkehard Bob says he was always able to out-manoeuvre the Spitfire pilots, but he was probably a better pilot than those he was up against, and he was certainly more experienced. It's like if you wanted to work out which aircrafts suffered most PKs, and asked the survivors - they'd all explain that they were never killed (er, obviously). So if you ask the survivors, they tend to be the ones that did pretty well.

Comments from Tom Neil don't cover dogfights from those at equal altitude. He often talks of 109s dropping down to attack him.

The evidence from all sources seems to suggests:
the 109 has better guns
the 109 can accelorate more quickly when diving
the 109 can push it's nose down without losing power - Spit will lose power but engine won't cut.
Spit climbes faster
Spit turns quicker
Spit is faster in level flight

When there are a lot of aircraft in a fight, being able to dive away from danger, and having the firepower to more easily knock the opponent out in one pass are big advantages.
When a fight is one on one, I think the Spit has the key advantages.
Team play and tactics will be important.