National Geo "Spitfire"

[CINDERS]

Just watched on Bigpond Movies a doco on the Spitfire a fairly recent one there are some superb air to air shots of this magnificent aircraft because thats what it was.
You may argue with validity about the P-51 which was a junket until it got the Merlin or the P-38 which the british tried without supercharged Allison engines and gave them back.
A side note is an aeronautical designer went to Germany and was employed by the Luftwaffe returning to England in 1933 and ended up working for Mitchell.
Funny thing is the double eliptical wing of the aircraft was not new idea, a German designer came up with it around the time of WWI, they seem to think maybe this designer who came back to Mitchell was a spy from Britain!

The thing is when Britain stood alone and she truly was in those darkest of days apart from aircrew coming from her dominions the situation was most dire.
Infact some of the surviving pilots from the battle of britain said if Hitler had crossed the channel England was finished.
The candor of these veterans and pictures of them in their youth fighting a most terrible war has to be seen some were only 18 years of age hardly lived and are sent out to kill or be killed.

There is some touching moments etched into their faces you can tell when they recount certain facts but always underplayed their part in the Battle of Britain or Malta.
A very last touching point is where one of the ATA women signed a Spitfire in 1944 the last one she flew (She flew 400 Spitfires and a total 1000 aircraft during the war)
Any way the private owner has her spifire that she signed it never went to war so bore her signature to this day, they re-united her with the plane she watched it fly in & land.
It was a really a moving moment for her and well in general the owner asked her if she would sign the aircraft again which she did she was only a few month shy of a 100 y/o.

The have a gem of a Spifire in Britain the only surviving one from the Battle of Britain it is so very precious to the flight as it is irreplaceable.
One of the pilots on the end of the doco said"The generation before us had a war, our generation had a war and the next generations went through war."
We have to find a solution!

I have seen allot of docos on the Spitfire as not only a mark of respect to its designer but to those that flew them and worked on them.
But mainly because my father was a LAC Engine Fitter in the RAAF 1941 to 1945 and worked on them as well, I still have his books from his courses.
Its worth the watch just for the airshots of that plane in flight.
Cheers.

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