Very cool USAAF Spitfire video

Fascinating story about a doubly-little known part of the war - USAAF Spitfires, and Photo-recce in general

And just for good measure, a bit more video of the PR Mk XI - and some history of the development of the mark at the video's YT page:

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


You are right that was very,very,very cool. Thank you OP for the video. What a generation these men and women were. Courage,Honor,Dignity.



I collect anything ww2 era. From patches to pins to uniforms. I love anything USAAF or marine.

I cant say how many of those i carved out of yellow cedar from the scraps of wood nipped from my uncles boat works....
My big brother was spitfire crazy....but i fell for the P51 and started making those for my "airbase"
(about half a wheelbarow of cement i scrounged from the building going on next door....)
which i smeared into a ruway and parking area with revetments....
Every halloween wed get all the firecrackers we could buy, and blow everything up, then start making more for next year.........

This was posted in my Man thread

Gentlemen... The liquid cooled, 27litre, V12 piston engine...

Thought it pertinent to this thread as well

Cody

Originally posted by stirling
My big brother was spitfire crazy....but i fell for the P51

Hard to go wrong with any choice featuring the sweet purr of the Merlin.

They stuck that merlin engine in the P51s too the two are incomparable....Spitfire and Mustang...

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul




"18 years of age with a highschool diploma could get flight training"

This guy flew into germany with a camera. "unarmed and alone"

Thanks for linking this.

I wasn't even aware that the Air Corps flew Spitfires. Neat stuff.

Yeah,

Let's all celebrate killing machines.

These are not made for pleasure are they?

no they wern't however these days they fly for joy.

I am fortunate where I work I get to hear and sometimes see Spitfires flying around most days when the weather is nice.

Where I work is near a place nick named 'home of the spitfire' at Duxford.
I don't mean to brag but here in the office when one if flying we open all of the office windows.
Merlin, yum yum.

Originally posted by jude11
Yeah,

Let's all celebrate killing machines.

These are not made for pleasure are they?

No but they're part of aviation history. and as someone who appreciates not only the men and women who protect my homeland, I also have an appreciation for the the equipment that aids them successfully in doing so.

Originally posted by jude11
Yeah,

Let's all celebrate killing machines.

These are not made for pleasure are they?

Well, as the Brits say, "up yours" those machines helped to save the free world when the Brits fought alone against
Hitlers Luftwaffe, well, the Brits, free French, free Poles, an Israeli, south Africans, new Zealanders, Austalians, Czechs, and many others.

Originally posted by jude11
Yeah,

Let's all celebrate killing machines.

These are not made for pleasure are they?

Actually if you had viewed the photo no - PR Spitfires were not made for killing - they had no guns. They even also lacked the bullet-proof windshields of their fighter counterparts - which IIRC would have cost 5-6mph in speed - eg see this page on Spitfire vs 109 which notes that it cost 6 mph on the Spitfire I

And in general, let us also not forget that your freedom to past drivel like this on the internet is something that needs to be defended by people willing to shoulder that responsibility.

In general I think that there was nothing much remarkable about that generation - they fought because they had to - as does pretty much everyone - for the US it was perhaps the last "popular" war for which you all feel something "good" was achieved....but that does make the people who fought it any less brave or wonderful than any other soldiers doing their job....just IMO

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul



kinda amazing what you can do with plane numbers to serial numbers to find out things !! from an era long ago!
leading to one man of who he is where he was during the time of war World War II

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
see this page on Spitfire vs 109 which notes that it cost 6 mph on the Spitfire I

What was interesting is the Merlin engine produced comparable power to the Daimler Benz but was smaller. For a very good book on Sir Stanley Hooker, a mathematician who worked at Rolls Royce read "Not Much of an Engineer" www.amazon.com...

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


Aloysius the Gaul

Thank you for posting this.....a really great little film and story about a time in history which we must never forget.

The USAAF spitfire pilot won a DFC, as did my grandfather...a medal which is the highest avaition accolade i believe from that time.

Regards

PDUK

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


Beautiful, now they don't make them like that anymore do they, started as a race plane that was originally a water take of plane but it morphed into the fighter that alongside the hurricane was one of the best fighters of the second world war, indeed except for the ME262 the only plane to beat it was an ally and that was the legendary mustang, the ME109 was close but not close enough, thank you for this video I never knew the US had used any in operational role's as technically except for the engine's the US had better plane's and the Spitfires engine was later manufactured and modified in the state's appearing in several variant's of US fighters, She is beautiful though isn't she.

Originally posted by jude11
Yeah,

Let's all celebrate killing machines.

These are not made for pleasure are they?

Go hug a tree you buzzkill.

OP,
Thanks for posting nice little doc, good story