The Insane Engineering of the Spitfire
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- čas přidán 7. 10. 2022
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Credits:
Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Animator: Eli Prenten
Sound: Graham Haerther
Co-writers: Sophia Mayet/Calum Douglas
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.
Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator
Thank you to my patreon supporters: Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung - Věda a technologie
The elevator must be deflected upwards, not downwards 4:07
Anyway great video!
Yeap. That’s a stupid mistake that I overlooked, and even told the animator to animate the mistake.
Glad I’m not the only one that saw it was wrong. But I thought it was a simple oversight.
This is something I immediately noticed and others will probably too. In my opinion, a re-upload to fix that animation should be done. Better sooner than later.
The narrator at 5:41 says "vortice". Would he correctly mean "vortex" (plural, "vortices")?
While you're at it i'll point out hydraulics is spelled hydraulics and not hydrolics
The wing armament was actually seen as a disadvantage because each gun needed to be configured to converge at a particular distance, which reduced overall accuracy. The BF109's nose guns concentrated firepower and improved roll rate by centralising mass.
True!
However, the convergence point meant you _had_ to be a _specific_ distance from the target for maximum accuracy.
But this _also_ meant that you could _opt_ for a more spray-and-pray approach at different distances.
So, like, you can put all your eggs in one basket, or decide that a few rounds on target was better than none. Which was a "luxury"(?) that the Bf-109 did not have.
Right? 🤔😅
When compared one to one the wing armament could be considered a disadvantage and less pilot friendly. However when fielding planes and maintenance it could be a great advantage to have fewer moving parts and a greater number of guns firing.
Really depends on what each gives up. Its much harder fitting a heavy nose armament on a single engine prop fighter because the prop and the engine are in the way. So while the armament is arguable more accurate, you have far less throw weight.
Mount those guns in the wings however and you can fit more of them, arguably less accurate, but more throw weight, especially with the B and C wings which were the cannon armed wings.
Accuracy is only part of the equation, throw weight is just as important, how many rounds can you throw at the target in the very limited period of time you have it in your sights.
Given the ranges those pilots were firing at, typically less than 400 metres, often *much* less, then the argument about gun convergence become less critical, and that increased throw weight that Spitfires armed with the later wings were able to deliver to their target becomes more important. After all, that convergence is only growing less and less severe as the range closes.
In other words, their are costs and benefits to both wing mounted and nose mounted armaments in prop fighters, and it really depends on what the priorities are for the air forces involved. It is no accident that the prop aircraft that mounted the heaviest nose armament were ALL twin engine designs....
I once saw a video which said that the nose gun caused reliability issues
in that case both armament configurations can be seen as equally advantageous and disadvantageous, as wingmounted is preferable for flight performance but nosemounted is preferable for combat performance
No interviews, deviations from the topic, no exaggerated narrative.
Just physics, statistics, and engineering.
If you had a TV show when I was a kid, I would watch it every chance I got. Good job on this one.
@Tech God forbid someone provide positive feedback to a content creator. It's better than scouring the comment section to find someone to talk down on.
Of course the information is on the internet, do you think I woke up this morning thinking "I want to do research on the engineering of a spitfire"? Of course not. Did a 20 minute video sound enticing? sure.
I'm not going to change your opinion on the mater, so this conversation is a waste of my time.
@Tech find some grass to touch snowflake
I think you’ll like this channel. He covers a lot of WWII aircraft in depth
czcams.com/users/GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles
@Tech sure its easily available, but are they reliable? This is as easy as easy gets, with the added sprinkle of entertainment.
Excellent commentary Joseph, these videos are gems eh?
I really love how despite being a Spitfire video, it takes time for the 109 too. It's fascinating to see the ingenious and different ways both sides approached various technical challenges.
Especially the fluid coupling.
One side used genocide. One didn’t. Go figure.
Yes, and all this under pressure of military heads busting your chops. Fascinating that the Brits got an advantage because the German engineers weren't allowed to enter their designs in races. The jolly good old Treaty of Versailles, old chap
The sheer imagination of getting into a plane and going into an air battle like this makes my skin shiver. These pilots were absolute madlads.
if I am not mistaken they were indeed "lads". Some started training at age 18 and then graqduated to busting NAZIs in the sky by age 20 ! Respect.
Ever heard of the 303rd? They were a bunch of poles that flew in Huricanes for the brits in the battle of britain. They were so pissed that they lost to the germans they would routinely run their planes into german bombers once they ran out of ammo. Thats waht Id call a mad lad.
@@firewolfy_6 that's not true :P
@@piotrkosciuszko9835 prove me wrong.
@@firewolfy_6
It's you making the assertion, it's up to YOU to prove it, not a person to disprove it :)
I've heard some Polish people say we don't respect what they did in the war. That's not true from my viewpoint, I always knew they did well. Indeed the other day the Battle Of Britain film was shown here in the UK and it makes a point of showing the Polish pilots in a good light .. ramming not being a part of it :)
Wonderful documentary. my father was British and worked on the early warning system for the Battle of Britain. he wanted to fly a spitfire so much but his vision wasn't good enough - he wore glasses., but he was so proud of that plane. He gave me a model version of the plane to assemble one Christmas, and I was so proud of the plane too. God rest his soul.
Great story, could do with a few more dragons though.
He could have taken a tip from Woods-Scawen who memorised the optician's sight card for the medical test. He got through as many of his own Hurricanes as 109s he shot down. He did not survive BoB but well done him and his generation.
@@myjizzureye LOL
@Bob Dobalina Good story indeed, may your dad rest in peace.
@@neilparsons7250 Aha, his dedication negate the bad view...
Albeit it's not that hard to memorize I guess, ingenuity maybe? ^^
@@myjizzureye Such fun you 🥰
6:00 I'm pretty sure this is Mustard's iconic narrating, glad to see him voicing over the quote
I was born in 47, and as a small child my parents were still in the habit saving any bits of aluminium foil they came across. It seems that during the war years there was country- wide effort to secure as much aluminium scrap as possible with which to build Spitfires.
This is easily one of the best and thorough Spitfire documentaries I've yet seen...
Towns around the UK would hold fundraising events during WW2 to raise the money to build a Spitfire. My Grandad used to tell me stories of collecting scrap metal, wood and paper to raise money for the fund.
Love the Mustard cameo! Great to see collaboration like this between great channels
As soon as I heard the first "bugger" I got all excited!
was looking for this comment
@@christopherthompson2004
This channel must be one of the reasons that Mustard doesn't upload his own original content more regularly.
And where is Mustard credited?
Timestamp?
That’s “Hydraulics”
But really, an insane presentation! Even as a former pilot, I learned a lot in this video
I clearly heard him say "Hydrolics", so phonetically correct, abeit not the correct spelling 😀
I love iiit. hydrolics aaaa
7:01 for timestamp
Also: carburetor (American English)
It’s actually ‘pneumatics’; there are no hydraulics in the wing.
Proud to say my Dad was a member of the RAF - an aircraft fitter - and his job was to help to keep those planes 'fit to fly'. He was a young man in his 20s when he also had that great responsibility in signing off those planes, after being serviced, AS 'fit to fly'. Years later - in middle age - he admitted he would never have the nerve to do that type of job again. But youth is a wonderful thing, and he - and many more like him - did their jobs, and did them well. He was one of the lucky ones to survive the war, live to raise a family, and lead a good life. RIP Dad, and to all the other young men and women who fought during WWII - and the many who did give their lives - may you rest in peace, also, and know that you ALL were from the 'Greatest Generation'. :)
My late unck was flight engineer on Halifaxes with Coastal Command based in Stornaway and the fitters ran a book. Nobody was bothered either.
Question: How did the Spitfire work?
Answer: Pretty well!
Well that's one answer.
240 likes and only 1 reply? Lemme fix dat
Mounting the guns centerline is beneficial when it comes to aiming and gun convergence. Wing mounted guns are typically set at angle so their shots converge at a certain range, making that range the optimal range. But that also means that outside the optimum aiming is harder and half your shots will always miss.
Great video! The Spitfire is just beautiful!
While true, it's not as much of an impact as you think. You generally didn't take shots until you were *very* close, so you didn't exactly have much of an effective firing distance to allow the convergence to break up the shots much. This effect is much more prominent in video games than it ever was in real life. You really only had an effective range of 250m, and around 400m for bombers under best conditions, otherwise you're just wasting ammunition.
@@Stealth86651 Oh it had an impact for sure. The Bf-109 spent a lot of time also shooting at bombers, which with a centerline armament meant they could shoot accurately while keeping out of the bombers defensive guns.
@@Kman31ca Yes, it had an impact as a technology. People just assume it had a lot bigger impact at ranges that were unrealistic, that's all. You can read the pilot reports or statistics on that though.
Later versions will be at 109 had Wing ornaments as well so that only works for the first years
It also has the advantage of moving mass closer to the centre reducing inertia resulting in quicker roll rate
I'm an aeronautical engineering student who loves military aviation history and the technologies involved in it. I've spent my fair amount of time learning about and making models of the Spitfire but it's so awesome to still learn new details of this beautiful bird and see all the information, videos, graphics and 3d models that the Real Engineering team put together. I dearly thank you and salute your work.
The channel Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles may be interesting for you. He gives a lot of details in his videos.
@@sebotto5149 I will take a look, thanks
@@victorpardoherrera643 Get a copy of Not Much of an Engineer by Sir Stanley Hooker. It’s inspirational.
@@alexnather7614 Bravo.
Edit: I see Alex Nathers post has disappeared. It was attempting to correct a spelling mistake.
Look up the Blackbird. You will enjoy the clip. I don't remember the U Tube title
Thank you for this video. My Father in law is Major General Carroll McColpin. He was a Spitfire Ace with the Eagle Squadron. He loved this plane and talked about it often. Look him up online, his story is fascinating. He and his wife are buried at Arlington National Cemetery a True war Hero.
According to the book about Hub Zemke, the US Spitfire pilots hated to give up their Spits for the P-47s.
Dude…. You’ve outdone yourself with this video…. Thank you for taking the time to educate us in these matters. As a history major I really appreciate it!
Kiss ass 💋
I'm gonna need to see a video on the F-102, F-106, and SAGE
It's such a complicated yet fascinating system, while also having a ton of flaws
Look up Bruce Gordon here on CZcams. He has was a real deal, F-102/106 jock. He also has a book out on the planes and his experiences.
@@ramosel Yep, been watching him for a good few years now
To this day, I think the Spitfire is still one of the most beautifully elegant machines ever devised by man. It's amazing to me that engineering decisions based on hard numbers aimed at making a weapon of war as powerful and efficient as possible happened to result in a shape that is so aesthetically pleasing to so many people. It's one for the ages for sure.
I agree 100%.
At every airshow I have ever attended, the Spitfire gets the most sincere 'oohs and ahs' of any WW2 plane there; especially from the Boomers raised on their fathers' true stories of valor, bravery, horror and glory of their young manhood.
Yes so elegant and harmonious! I love the Messeschmit but it's just CUBES EVERYWHERE ^^
It's almost as if aesthetics and function and intrinsically liked when dealing with aerodynamics.
@@theallseeingmaster That is so true. Seeing the Memorial Flight, especially the Spitfire raises so many emotions.
Just purchased the Nebula bundle and honestly the entire price is worth it just for the logistics of D-day and the Battle of Britain series’s. Absolutely fantastic content, keep it up
Thanks for using 601 squadron Spits in the CG sequences - my grandfather was a flight sergeant in 601, he knew that Merlin like the back of his hand and I am now the proud owner of his RR Merlin manuals.
Hey! I'm sorry but I think you messed up in 4:07.
To increase angle of attack and thus, the aircraft's lift, the elevator must be deflected upwards, not downwards.
Hope, I'm helping and excellent video! :)
you're correct
As a pilot, I confirm. On animation, the elevator should be deflected the opposite way. Regardless, awesome video!!! Keep with the good job, I love your videos on things that fly and always learn tons of amazing stuff
he pinned a different comment pointing out the same thing and replied to it btw
@@StanislawPusep a bit counter-intuitive, huh?
You learn a new thing every day...
@@somedude2492 Its not counter-intuitive, when the elevator points up it makes ur nose go up, pretty simple. And im sure that mistake was on purpose so people make comments about this because everyone knows this. And thanks to this the video will have bigger engagement=more views
As someone who has studied the Spitfire all my adult life and also flown one, can I say that this documentary is of impeccable quality. There are a few misplaced clips of Hurricanes and Hispano Buchons, but that's forgivable. Your explanations of aerodynamic principles are very clear and accurate, and you rightly focus on the key points that made the Spitfire an apex predator: Bev Shenstone's wing design; the power to weight achieved by Rolls Royce engines; and the radiator technology that Supermarine had developed during the Schneider Trophy campaign.
I'm really impressed and Nebula has instantly become a trusted brand. I have taken out a sub and look forward to much more.
I'm a bit sad you haven't mentioned Meredith when talking about the radiator, the bloke basically saved the Spitfire a couple of miles/hour when they had to abandon vapor cooling.
You gotta do the Mosquito now- utilizing unexploited manufacturing resources in the form of woodworking shops, while also taking advantage of the benefits a wood construction could give? It's a perfect blend of engineering and manufacturing knowledge.
Yeah, turns out being able to carve and sand in smooth 3D curves rather than needing multiple sheets of metal allows a VERY clean finish. One of the only fast bomber designs of the war that was ACTUALLY fast enough for the speed to act as a defensive measure
Actually in a turn, you increase the deflection of the elevator, not decrease it as stated in the video; that is the rear edge of the elevator move upward. This works to move the tail downward and the nose upward, which increases the angle of attack, and thus increases lift to compensate for the loss of the vertical lift component while banking.
Glad you said this, I found that odd as well. Flying model airplanes is my reference point and you'd go straight into the ground with down elevator.
5:58 I would recognize that voice anywhere! It was a very welcome surprise to hear Mustard, considering all the aviation videos he does. Keep up the fantastic work, you two!
Yeah it surprised me!
I'm glad I wasn't going insane!
HAHA i was about to comment that, that voice was so familiar, and it's so surprising for me that Mustard show up right here as RJ Mitchell
I was gonna say, I believe that was RJ Mustard lol
And where is Mustard credited?
4:10 - "the pilot will deflect the elevators downward to increase lift". No. You pull on the stick, the elevators deflect upwards to increase the down force on the tail causing the angle of attack to increase, thus increasing lift.
Yeah that part made no sense at all…
Your no expert. Don't be a pilotsplainer you patriarchal oppressor 😡😡😡
Great video! One thing I noticed though, at 4.15, you say the elevator goes down. I think it should be up, otherwise the plane would come out of the turn. At a steep bank angle, the elevator effectively functions as the rudder.
Great job! This was a great production, highly informative and no BS.
4:07 - Is that correct? Pushing forward on stick pitches the nose down (elevator deflects down). Wouldn't that decrease lift? You'd gain airspeed but not lift, right?
You're right, it's the wrong way around. Deflecting the elevator that way will decrease the angle of attack and reduce lift, not increase like said in the video.
Maybe hes dyslexic
Your no expert. Don't be a pilotsplainer you patriarchal oppressor 😡😡😡
The quality of these animations is absolutely staggering! I can’t begin to understand how much time and effort has gone in to them
Not as much as it went to the vending machine animation XD
Even the technical Illustrations he showed were sublime.
this video is insane man. You are already the best engineering channel on CZcams and managed to step it up a whole another level. Congrats!
🤖
I've seen and read plenty about the Spitfire but this told me so much more. Brilliant vid. Thanks.
This summer I had the honour of sitting inside the cockpit of one of the Duxford IWM Spitfires. What an amazing machine. ❤
If you ever visit Stoke-on-Trent they have a Spitfire museum as the home of Reginald
I love how you integrated the tactics of dogfight into each section of the engineering script. Giving us a full understanding of not just how but also why. Top video as always!
The quality and CG in your videos has become top notch, great job 👍
Thank You So Much to Real Engineering Channel for all those informative & enjoyable to watch engineering tutorials!
Disappointed that you didn't talk about Beatrice Shilling and how she fixed the spitfire's carburetor problem.
Still a great video.
Check out an older video, "the spitfires fatal flaw"
Just one of many Jr. engineers who solved problems at Supermarine and RAE. Meredith was a more famous engineer with a broader impact on WWII, like the P-51 design. Shenstone was perhaps the most brilliant engineer in the Supermarine crowd after RJ.
The person saying R.J. Mitchell's statement kind of sounds like Mustard's voice
First rate production! One of the best. You did a really great job teaching the non technical watcher.
Wow! What an AMAZINGLY informative and well crafted video! Excellent job putting this together
Truly one of the best pieces of engineering of all times.
Truly one of the engineerings of all time
@@Qwertype315 My favourite part was when he said "It's spittin' time", and started spittin' everywhere.
Spitfire overrated. Nostalgia. Merlin was great in anything it was put in with Americans driving most of the upgrades. Looks better with cropped wings.
@@Qwertype315 bro you just the comment
BF-109 was better with fuel injection. Some serious rose colored glasses with the spitfire. The Hurricane was 99% as good.
Not only was the Spitfire a very capable aircraft right from the start but it served as an exceptional development platform so that with upgrades it was able to compete both with the BF 109 and the Fw 190 throughout the course of the war.
ꜱᴇɴᴅ ᴀ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ👆👆
The spitfire was a dog from the start. Absolutely terrible. The Merlin engine won the war. Not the Spitfire or the Lancaster.
@@matthewvincent8971 sounds like a cope
@@matthewvincent8971 Sounds like you don't have the faintest idea what you are talking about.
Oh...wait...I get it. You're just trolling. Okay, troll, you've had your fun and you've provoked me into giving you the attention that you so desperately need.
You can go now. Bye.
@@matthewvincent8971 bruhh
20:41 I’m not a history buff or even a fan of this material but I was complementing the high quality of the models sets and animations of this video during my viewing. Fantastic video.
Great video, best explanation of Spitfire wing and cooling systems design I've seen yet.
5:43 Vortex!
Nice Mustard cameo/Easter egg at 6:00.
Another thing to note is that an aircrafts turn performance is not solely dependent on it's turn radius, although it is important for many maneuvers of a dogfight (one circle, scissors, etc.).
The other crucial component is turn rate, or how many degrees per second the aircraft can complete in a turn. This is important for two circle dogfights, as well as other fights.
If you want to learn more, look up one circle vs two circle dogfights!
The Bf-109 did have 2 advantages. The first was a higher rate of climb due to lower wing loading. The second was the high pressure fuel injection engine which meant it could perform high speed dives. The merlin engine was fed by a carburetor which meant it would stall if put under the same forces.
The main reason the Germans were unable to achieve air superiority though was the home field advantage. British fighters could afford to fight far more aggressively than their German counterparts as they had full fuel tanks and could use them up as they would just land. The Germans had to consider the distance back home as well.
Also quite a few planes that are shot down don't crash. Holes in the fuel tanks or a compromise of the engine or limited damage to the flight controls can render a plane unable to fly but still capable of landing safely. If a British plane got disable by light damage the pilot would just be put in a different plane and the plane would be repaired. If the same thing happened to a German both the pilot and plane were lost.
When the roles reversed the British didn't fare much better than the Germans had with their bombings. What made the bombings successful was the collapse of Germany's air defenses due to the overstretching of the eastern front and the incompetence of Gouring. Germany never developed a well functioning fully integrated air defense network like Britain did and by 1943 even if the British lost a lot of planes that didn't matter due to the practically infinite resources provided by the US.
@@MrMarinus18 First of all, in wing loading a Spitfire would always outperform a contemporary Bf.109 model. Secondly, 109's advantage in climb rates (albeit not tremendous and at times non-existent) was provided by the sheer horse power per kilogram ratio.
And the never-ending stanza about fuel injection falls apart since 1942 and the implementation of Merlin 66 (alongside US-produced 266 model), 70-series and every later iteration. Even if you consider 1942 "late", fuel injection alone doesn't win battles, it only gives a chance to escape alive. Didn't stop Mk.I and (later on) Mk.V Spits from warding the Germans off above Britain, Malta and North Africa until Mk.IXs arrived.
@@MrMarinus18 impressive german pilots can shoot down more planes than british
Just brilliant - thanks for uploading!
Another absolutely amazing video with plenty of facts and pure knowledge. Loved it!
Thank you for making videos like these.
I really love these (especially) WW2 aviation videos!
I'm currently studying (and struggling since Online learning) Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. WW2 aviation has always been my passion, for as long as I can remember.
So thank you for videos like this, it really keeps me motivated throughout my studies ❤️
Glad you gave the Spitfire an updated video since the last one 6 years ago! It's very cool to see how far this channel has come since then.
o7 I can't imagine how brave the Spitfire's pilots were, and how smart the engineer's must've been. Great video!
Another clever innovation in the radiator design was that cool air drawn into the radiator was heated by the radiator core causing it to expand, then when it left the radiator, it was travelling significantly faster than when it entered, thereby creating a small amount of thrust (in effect a jet) which also partially negated the drag created by the radiator. Clever man Mr. Mitchell. we can only imagine what kind of designs he would have come up with if he'd had access to turbojets.
Thats like saying the pilots ate beans before every flight because farting added extra thrust.....
@@mikeland3453 lol, true though very clever design of the radiator inlet and outlet
Actually, that radiator cooling scheme you describe was due to Meredith (1935) at RAE. The Spitfire radiators were a bandaid solution when the glycol liquid / radiators were adopted. That space in the wings was originially intended for fuel tanks.
Meredith and RJ Mitchell collaborated on an upgraded version of the Spitfire (Type 312) with a more efficient ventral radiator which RJ was working on when he died in 1937.
The square, wing-mounted radiators were a main source of drag and didn't really enable the Meredith effect unfortunately.
Props to the animators on this video! Really nice work on the visuals to help explain everything.
I love the Mustard cameo. Lol!
I thought I was the only one that noticed lol. So subtle yet so good
Super video! You might want to mention Miss Shilling orifice - her tweak to the carburettor design that allowed a few seconds negative G in later models.
Not really in "later models", just from ~Mk.II to Mk.V until the Mk.IX arrived (mid 1942 - early 1943).
The latter had Merlin models with pressure carburetors instead of float ones. Same about late-war Griffons.
What an awesome video. I had the pleasure of flying the Grace spitfire last year. I learned a lot from this video. Thank you for posting.
Very good presentation, one minor flaw that has already been covered a lot. The saddest part of the whole Spitfire story is the death of RJ Mitchell before he got to see what his plane was truly capable of, perhaps a brief mention of that would be nice.
He barely even worked on it though
He also HATED the name Spitfire!
@@koitorobYes - apparently, he was in hospital when a friend told him that the aircraft was going into production.
"They're going to name it the Spitfire"
Mitchell - "Just the sort of bloody stupid name they would give it."
17:00 The armament layout was mixed up in this take. It features a 109 firing 6 guns from its wings, like a Spitfire, instead of the usual machine guns on top of the nose plus nose cannon and/or dual wing cannons.
Amazing video mate! Thanks
Great to hear so many subtle technical details that made the Spitfire the evocative icon it is. I learned much, thank you.
However... The slower, stubbier Hawker Hurricane got a lot more lift from its thicker, draggier wings. Which gave it a greater climb rate than the early Spitfire.
Back in 1940, given the same amount of flying time, the Hurricane could get higher than a Spitfire, even though it was flying much more slowly.
So... during the Battle of Britain, after scrambling, it was by far the more numerous Hurricanes that climbed higher to tackle the BF109s. The enemy fighter escort usually flew higher than the bombers, ready to dive down and swat any Allied fighters threatening the bombers.
Thus the Spitfires mostly only intercepted the bombers (during the Battle of Britain - to repeat this crucial timing detail).
Sorry to pop the nostalgia bubble, but the notion that the Spitfire was the dog-fighting hero of the Battle of Britain is simply not correct, even though it was certainly only the Spitfire that had the raw performance to defeat the BF109 in one-on-one combat. It's just that, at that time of the war, there was not that much dogfighting. It was squadrons of interceptors trying to bring down vast armadas of bombers, while watching out for limited fighter escort diving on them from above.
Of course, IF the BF109's managed to evade the Hurricanes and dive down to bomber level to protect the bombers and tackle the Spitfires, then yes, there was some dog-fighting. But the primary role of the Spitfire during the Battle of Britain was bomber interception, while the Hurricanes climbed higher to intercept (and keep busy) the German escort fighters.
On the other hand, the Hurricane could take vast amounts of battle damage and still remain airborne, which is how it could last long enough to hold it's own against a superior BF109 when taking on the fighter escort higher up. It could absorb all the ammunition from an enemy plane, and still be flying. The size of the guns thus became a major factor in the effectiveness of any fighter at defeating the opposition.
The razor-thin margin of victory in that particular conflict would be completely swamped in defeat, if any one link in that complex chain of strategic defense had not worked. Including the absense (or reduced numbers) of either Spitfire or Hurricane, and the priceless early warning from radar that enabled the Allied fighters to scramble, climb to altitude, and be ready and waiting to intercept the incoming enemy aircraft before they even got to their target drop area.
Britain was also helped by the BF109 only being able to spend about 10 minutes in the combat zone, before being forced to turn for home by fuel limits. That's that "over their home territory" advantage mentioned.
The other curious fact I find astounding, is that the pilot only had about 14 seconds of guns firing at their disposal. All that effort and fuel to maintain the planes, scramble, climb up, and then try to manouvre into a position to score a hit, and they had just 14 seconds of ammunition to do enough damage to the enemy to force their retreat or crash. Squandering bullets meant you could go home as soon as your 14 seconds were fired, whether you hit anything or not. That's a staggering amount of resource being spent, for such tiny margins of actually hitting an enemy plane.
Not everyone was an ace...
Much easier to hit a ponderous bomber... which a Spitfire did easily, bringing down significant numbers, and ultimately halting the Battle because the Luftwaffe could not afford to sustain the loss rate. Which is why they get so much credit for winning the battle, even if it was for "the wrong reasons".
In later war years, long after the battle of Britain was over, the Spitfire continued to evolve with ever more powerful engines while the Hurricane stuck around, but mostly ceased development. Thus it was the Spitfire alone that continued defeating the enemy all the way to 1945, and is another reason why it is this plane that carries the accolade as the Battle Winner.
Watching this channel grow is amazing!
I'm now studying aerospace engineering and I hope I get to work on a project that turns up on this channel for good reasons!!
Both Nebula series have been a dream to watch!
And I love how even though this is a long video, it's only a taste of what those series have.
My son got to take a ride in a two seater Spitfire (trainer, I believe) one of only 2 or 3 in existence when he was in elementary school back in 2006/07...I was so jealous but also mesmerized by the complete beauty, the technological magic and the frightening speed of this machine designed to wreac havoc wherever it chose...
Well done, very enjoyable and informative at the same time.
The amount of research and hardwork behind both the spitfire and this animated video is amazing in itself 💯
Maybe. I want to know if the guy filmed tightening the prop nut was paid for each time he appeared 😁
I have always loved the content you have had in your videos, but I am especially enjoying the quality as of late. I really appreciated the voiceover by Mustard, too.
Excellent job of explaining the designs and developments of both planes.
Outstanding video as usual! Only one needs to watch out for that elevator deflection direction. However, this part of the video for the elliptical wing will end up in my classes of Aerodynamics as a "must watch" for my students.
You have missed one point when discussing the benefit of the elliptical wing, the lower induced drag does not seem much flying straight, but induced drag varies with the SQUARE of the Lift coefficient so in a 4G turn the induced drag is X 16 times. This fact also impacts the ability to turn tightly, the Me 109 had automatic slats which allowed its wing to achieve much higher lift coefficients in a tight turn, but at the cost of much higher induced drag. This caused Me 109s to loose speed or altitude or both in a tight turn if they tried to keep up with a Spit. Later in the War, the improved Octane rating of the fuel allowed the Merlin to be boosted much more than Nazi engines.
ꜱᴇɴᴅ ᴀ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ👆👆
I think you should read "Secrets of the Spitfire" - the biography of Beverley Shenstone - the senior aerodynamicist working for Mitchell . The elliptical wing was not merely chosen to cover the guns. Apart from the reduction in induced drag, the wing , which was actually 2 semi ellipses with a common major axis on the 25% chord line, had many other benefits apart from providing enough depth to cover the guns and undercarriage.
ꜱᴇɴᴅ ᴀ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ👆👆..
The benefits of the elliptical wing were first described by english aerodynamicist, Fredrick Lanchester in 1907. Prantl expanded on his work in 1918 with the Lanchester-Prandtl wing theory. Operationally, its gentle pre-stall buffet allowed the Spitfire pilot to ride the edge of the stall in combat without fear of sudden wing stall/ snap roll. Hurricane pilots didn't have the same warning and hence were more reluctant to push their aircraft to the limit. Kittyhawk pilots also were afraid of the aileron snatch and flick roll if too agressive in the turn. The P-40s also had a tendency for the rudder to lock up in certain manouvers.
Spitfires saved many a pilot due to its fine handling.
I was watching a TV series in the UK called "wheeler dealers " over christmas, where they get old cars, do them up, and sell them on.
They had an episode where they milled out and old turbocharger, stuck a new/better fan in, and increased the HP a fair bit. 10% or whatever.
It reminded me of a great book I once read called "not much of an Engineer" by the guy who hugely improved the Merlin perfomance by very smart improvements to the Turbo/Super on it. If you like engineering, I recommend it :) It is (to me anyway!) interersting how little changes to a big thing can make such an improvement IF they are the correct changes.
Thanks for such a cool video the visuals were amazing
The layout of the guns in the Bf-109 did have its advantages, since all the guns, especially in the later models from the 'F' onwards, were located in a small frontal area, two above the nose and one through the propellor spinner, the fire was concentrated and meant a shorter burst did more damage.
ꜱᴇɴᴅ ᴀ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ👆👆..
Absolutely incredible renders and editing!
Great video as always!
The effort you guys put into making the graphics in these videos is crazy. Top notch!
Then again, the Hawker Hurricane also did just as much work, so maybe you should do a video on it.
The Hurricane was the real Hero and did all the dog work!
The Hurricane, outdated by mid-late 1940 & had the worst kill ratio of the Battle of Britain.
@@bobsakamanos4469 outdated does not mean useless my friend.
@@kommandantgalileo of course. As Stalin said, "quantity has a quality all its own". ...but that's an endorsement of attrition warfare, meaning loss of our young lads barely out of their teens. Better quality means saved lives and less profiteering.
@@bobsakamanos4469 well, at least the hurricanes prevented more lost lives.
When I saw this show up in my recommendations I figured it'd be the same wikipedia history as all the others I've seen on the subject. Because I felt like listening to some low-intensity background noise while playing games on the other monitor, I opened the video...
...and found it's actually an in-depth look into the science and technology involved in designing a WW2 fighter.
On one hand, I found a new channel to follow.
On the other, I completely forgot about the game I was playing and died while afk.
You win some, you lose some :D.
superb video, well researched and presented, outstanding animations. As an avid WW2 enthusiast, at 58 I finally understanding why the Spitfirw was so good. And also marvel at the german engineering. subscribed.
An elliptical taper to the planform does not require that the leading and trailing edges both taper equally - rather it requires the length of the total chord in the spanwise direction to taper elliptically. How the designer chooses to arrange (stack) the airfoils (fwd and aft) in the spanwise direction is totally up to them, and, as was done in the Spitfire, the airfoils are often stacked so the 1/4 chord is straight - yacht designers do this very often too for rudders, to the turning moment is colinear to the rudder shaft. Remember the local amount of lift of proportional to the length of the chord, so (assuming you have no washout and the same airfoil section), all you need to do is taper the total chord length along the span in an elliptical fashion.
Thanks for your work, in general, but specifically on airplanes. Your videos on the P-47 Thunderbolt and the A-10 Warthog were amazing. This video on the Spitfire is awesome, too. The Spit was the most beautiful fighter of WW2, imho. The P-51 Mustang would be a great analysis for you. The way it was mediocre until is got the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine would be interesting. Thanks for your efforts, from a guy who lacks the math skills but can understand your explanation.
Ive always felt like people dont appreciate the absolute workhorse that its the p-47. It was a vital plane introduced at a vital time, and while it had its issues, much like the m4 sherman, it was the right weapon at the right time. Not the best, but far from the worst.
The P51 was much more aerodynamically advanced than the Spitfire, especially in cooling drag reduction. However the Americans struggled with supercharger design, and it was the introduction of the Merlin 66 that greatly improved high altitude performance. This is what made the difference.
@@sheldonholy5047 P51 was a great plane, although it couldn't climb or turn like a Spitfire. Its strengths were in other areas - especially range. Also, and this is not meant disparagingly, the P51 was cheap to build which gave it a big advantage over the P47 and the Spitfire in wartime. US mass production made a huge difference to the outcome of WW2 and the careful use of strategic materials was a big part of that.
@@slammerf16 also a very good point - the spitfire did take around 30-40% more man hours to manufacture than most of its contemporaries, namely the Bf109. This is quite often overlooked.
The Germans did well considering their lack of many materials which the allies had access to, which forced them to use ball bearings instead of sleeve bearings, which is quite undesirable in large engines.
Absolutely mesmerizing. Best engineering channel on youtube.
Thanks for sharing! Been a big fan of the Spitfire for well over 50 years
Amazing animations and great commentary. Please keep them coming!
Great video and great visuals as always!
Please note that at 4:11 the elevator should be deflected upward to make the airplane pitch up, increase the angle of attack and, ultimately, produce more lift (and more drag).
Yes. Elevators up gives downward lift causing the aircraft to pivot around the center of mass which pitches the nose upward increasing lift.
The wing is also where all the appreciable lift comes from. The elevator just produces a rotational moment to increase the wing's angle of attack. I'm surprised Real Engineering made this mistake. He's usually a lot better at getting his facts straight, even on the topic of aviation.
@@user-do5zk6jh1k nobody is an expert in everything.
he pinned a different comment pointing out the same thing and replied to it btw
what's better the Elliptical wing of the spifire or the laminar flow wing of the P51 mustang??
Excellent piece.Very informative!
This is the best I've seen. In particular, you talk about the advantage the inverted, fuel injected Daimler-Benz Bf109 engine had in neg. G manuvers, compared to float carb. Allied aircraft (Spits...Mustangs). To wit, 109 pilots could push straight over in a dive; Allied aircraft....as you pointed out, had to roll over inverted or the engine would flood.
Consummate production. Jaw dropping really how good these videos are. Bravo!
My grandfather was in the Airforce and I remember how he landed the Spitfire in a field after an engine failure. But despite this, the spitfire was his favorite plane. He flew many of the MIG models as well but he always said that the Spitfire fought back with it's controls and felt like you actually did the flying.
I have read Spitfire pilot reports that the Spitfire just goes where you think about where you want it to go. In other words an easy plane to fly. This has to improve survival ability in a war situation.
This has got to be an interesting story: how did he end up going from Spitfire to MIG?
@@enterthekraken lend Lease
@@enterthekraken I can only think he might have been Russian - they were given Spitfires.
Was your grandfather Russian or Polish?
Amazing evolution of the Spitfie airframe from a lightweight short range interceptor to carrier fighter to escort fighter and finally high speed griffon monster.
Most people don't realize that the Spitfire internal fuel capacity went from 85 imp gal to 196 Imp gallons on some late production Mk. IX / XVI versions. Some Mk.IX's in 1944 could range from Tangmere and into Germany and back - an amazing accomplishment for an interceptor.
gotta pause the video and say wow that intro is amazing!
I think you made a mistake at 4:07, in a turn, one would need to the elevator deflect up, rotate the nose up to pitch the main wing up for more lift, to compensate for the lost lift. Not pitch down as shown in the animation.
Pitching down may keep a plane flying in a straight line, even when the plane is rolled to one side (wings are tilted), although that usually also requires rudder input. This is rarely done except when trying to looking for land marks or in an air show.
Your no expert. Don't be a pilotsplainer you patriarchal oppressor 😡😡😡
Awesome video. Though there might be a mistake in the discussion on turn performance. The elevator should deflect trailing edge up to increase lift on wing (and drag) instead of up.
The quality of the content on this channel is amazing.
Thank you for explaining and presentation, appreciate it 👍
4:13, shouldn't the elevator be deflected the other way? From the look of the animation the lift will increase at the rear, causing a torque which will turn the plane downwards and make the main wings produce less lift. If the elevator is deflected the other way the plane will turn upward and the main wings produce more lift.
Your no expert. Don't be a pilotsplainer you patriarchal oppressor 😡😡😡
The brave men that flew the spitfires, no matter the danger. Long live the free world.
Great video!
Note that the air is compressed by the supercharger before it merge with the fuel in order to to increase air density and be able to mix with more fuel, for better output power.
Most noticed the wrong elevator in the turn, but I think that also the ailerons have problems too: you use them just to enter into a turn, but they return flat during the turn, otherwise you will continue to increase the bank angle. Flat during the turn, then in the opposite direction to return to straight flight.
Yes noticed this, quite a big mistake to not notice this when reviewing the video before uploading
This channel is a joke.
You keep the ailerons deflected during the entire turn
@@anthonyserafin4931 no, you don't
@@MatteoCanella and you know this how?
Thanks for putting in the research and explaining so many details regarding this incredible aeroplane that nearly all the others just gloss over.