Spitfire: The Plane That Saved The World
 

Hi Gang, I just watched a wonderful documentary film, Spitfire: The Plane That Saved The World on Apple TV today.

This is a lovingly and beautifully crafted and photographed documentary on what was the most important plane in World War II. It received a *94%* rating on the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes.

If you're looking for something to watch on this Memorial Day Holiday, I can't think of a finer film. As one reviewer said: this film is not really about war, but about Britain and its people.

Tip: Watch it to the end. The ending is really quite touching and lovely.

Highly, highly recommended. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Will watch this but must confess I'm a Hawker Hurricane Fan, mainly because that was the Fighter flown by Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Rodney Park, GCB, KBE, MC & Bar, DFC, the New Zealander in charge of 11 Group during the Battle of Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Park

If you travel to New Zealand for a holiday, I strongly recommend that you visit
the SIR KEITH PARK MEMORIAL AVIATION DISPLAY in MOTAT.

https://www.motat.org.nz/exhibitions...ation-display/

Oh, there's Hawker Hurricanes featured in this, as well.

The heroism of these young pilots (many of them between the ages of 18-20) was astonishing. One of the Spitfire pilots recounted being above a flight of Gernan bombers, and watching 3 Hurricane pilots dive into a formation of 500 German bombers in a series of "blow-through" attacks.

Haven’t watched the film yet and no doubt the Spitfire saw a lion’s share of fighting but I’m somewhat surprised it would be titled as the one that “saved the world”. Based on everything I’ve ever read that title would go to the P-51 Mustang that finally allowed the allies to carry out short and long distance bombing runs being both a long range escort fighter and a worthy match for the WWII true superiority which unfortunately belonged to the Luftwaffe and their Focke-Wulf FW190. :smoking:

It was one of the important planes in WWII but certainly not the only 1 that saved the world.

Last I checked though planes and ships were tools of war and important at that but it was humans and their bravery that saved the world.

One of my other "hobbies" is radio controlled airplanes and helicopters. My friend is a huge WWII warbird fan. One of our favorite things to do at the flying field was recreating WWII warbird aerial dogfighting. We shot multiple videos of our dogfighting from the planes. In this video you can see me piloting and trying to outsmart and outmaneuver his P-51 in my FW190 Wulf. :D In the video you can hear the P-51 50mm machine gun fire... no, it's not real of course but the recording and the sound coming from his airplane sound box is authentic as the recordings were done from the real deal by the company who manufacturers it. Good times. :yes:

https://youtu.be/CCFLyTAKgRc

Also sad and ironic that my beloved and favorite P-51 "Big Beautiful Doll" radio control model crashed in the hands of another pilot that had it on loan from me and shortly thereafter the real Big Beautiful Doll had also met its demise when it crashed in Arizona, February 2016, killing both the pilot and his friend and copilot... I was crushed when the real Mustang perished and unfortunately neither the real Mustang nor my model can ever be restored. :tears:


Originally flown by Colonel John.D. Landers in 1944 in the European theater, the Big Beautiful Doll had a second chance at life after it was restored and flown in 1963.

RIP Mr.Pino and Mr.Tramontano and Big Beautiful Doll

"Pilot and owner Jeffrey Pino, who served as president of Sikorsky Aircraft from 2006 to 2012, and Nicholas Tramontano, a fellow warbird enthusiast, mechanic, and pilot, were killed when the restored fighter known as Big Beautiful Doll crashed and burned about 30 miles south of Phoenix."



https://i2.wp.com/fightersweep.com/w...pg?w=447&ssl=1


https://i0.wp.com/fightersweep.com/w...30%2C329&ssl=1





https://i1.wp.com/fightersweep.com/w...pg?w=640&ssl=1

The Spitfire eventually matched the FW-190, the Hurricane was more durable and scored the most victories in the B of B. It was mainly used in the desert war afterwards, and had faded from view a tad by '44. The Spitfire, once they replaced the pop guns with proper cannon, served throughout. Have to agree the P-51 had more impact and saved countless bomber crews lives, as well as it's illustrious groundwork, but we needed both in the summer of '40.

:thumbsup: agreed ......and when it came to the Mustang the 'D' version was the one. It's .50 cal brownings and rearward visibility were much improved

The .50 cal was a much needed addition in terms of the firepower but in order to get to and keep up with the Luftwaffe in the first place, the Packard V-1650 Merlin, two stage/two speed supercharged engine was the real winner in the D model P-51. The original Allison engine could not keep up in terms of speed or altitude and the Luftwaffe often used the surprise tactic of flying high and diving in for the kill.

While I mention it without giving the Luftwaffe any credit or honor, truth be told, they were much more advanced in experience and technology. A quick glance at the aces of the skies during WWII and confirmed kills, the list is very sobering... One will quickly notice there are over 140 Luftwaffe pilots that held mind blowing numbers of kills before the list gets to any allied pilots, Soviets included. Ivan Kozhedub was an ace pilot and a national Soviet hero with over 60 confirmed kills while the top Luftwaffe pilot had over 340 kills and the list goes on to include 140 other Luftwaffe pilots that were close to those numbers.... The allies definitely had their work cut out for them fighting with the Luftwaffe in the skies as well as on the ground. If it wasn’t for all the allies pulling together and the great sacrifices required, the war could have ended very differently. God bless all the WWII vets, they gave it their all for our freedom.