Spitfire 80th Anniversary

[Bigfish14]

"A flypast to mark the 80th anniversary of the Spitfire's first flight has taken place over the Hampshire coast."

The BBC report (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-35729686) continues "The first prototype, K5054, designed by RJ Mitchell, took off from Eastleigh Aerodrome on 5 March 1936. A Spitfire flew over Southampton Water" (on 5 March 2016) "and the site of the Supermarine factory in Woolston, where thousands of the World War Two fighters were made." The report gives a map of the flight path of the 80th anniversary flight.

So I made a copy of the flight plan using Plan G (btw top marks for awesome piece of free software) and flew it, with 1200hrs 5 March 2016 Southampton weather c/o Rex 4 and Active Sky Next. My only departure from exactitude was to beat up Southampton International's main runway at full throttle @10 ft followed by a Victory Roll, before coming in to land. ATC was kind enough to overlook this in the circumstances.

What fun. Lots of thanks A2A for such outstanding Spitfire modelling.

[Lewis - A2A]

hehe sounds fun and yes Happy Birthday to the Spitfire!

[Dogsbody55]

An important day in British history indeed. What the Spitfire achieved in it's career stands second to none, but it's a pity we all forgot the Hurricane's first flight too (6th November 1935). Surely the Hurricane is one of the most forgotten planes ever, and without it the fight against tyranny might well have been lost in 1940.


Cheers,
Mike

[Moggster]

An important day in British history indeed. What the Spitfire achieved in it's career stands second to none, but it's a pity we all forgot the Hurricane's first flight too (6th November 1935). Surely the Hurricane is one of the most forgotten planes ever, and without it the fight against tyranny might well have been lost in 1940.


Cheers,
Mike

Hear hear Mike and what many people don't know is that the Hurricane broke the World speed record for military aircraft in 1938. One of my favourite aviation stories involved the Hurricane.
In late 1938/early 1939, 1 of the Hawker test pilots flew a Hurricane down to Tangmere to show the 2 squadrons the aircraft which was replacing their Fury biplanes. He landed on the runway, but as he taxied off the runway 1 of the landing gear collapsed leaving the Hurricane beached. This amused the onlooking pilots from the 2 squadrons who started clapping and cheering the spectacle. The test pilot merely stood up in the cockpit, motioned the ground crew over to the Hurricane and got them to lift the wing up. He then manually lowered the collapsed gear, restarted the engine and continued taxiing the Hurricane to the (probably astonished) pilots as if nothing had happened!

[Dogsbody55]

[quote=Hear hear Mike and what many people don't know is that the Hurricane broke the World speed record for military aircraft in 1938. [/quote]

Are you referring to the flight by Sqdn Ldr Gillam from Edinburgh to London?? After that flight, he became known as "Tailwind" Gillam thanks to the assist he got from a winter tail wind. Funny story, btw, of the collapsed gear leg. Such was the ruggedness of the Hurricane. No pilot ever managed to pull the wings off a Hurricane, another of it's unique records. No other WW2 fighter can claim that. It's a real shame that no one does a decent Hurricane for FSX. It deserves special treatment.

That said, please excuse my hijacking of this thread. It is about the Spitfire, which was the greatest fighter of WW2. It's record is unparalleled by any other fighter of that era.


Cheers,
Mike