Battle of Britain 109 vs Spitfire video today

Hey! This might be a bit specific, but have you ever come across any accounts of better forward visibility in a 109 vs a Spitfire, due to its inverted V8? Because that's my key takeaway from playing them both in some modern airsims, which gives the advantage to the 109 for me personally. Was it ever a thing for pilots irl? During the testing of captured aircraft, for instance

Great video! Very glad to see you posting another new one, and it certainly lives up to your deserved reputation for quality and technical savvy. Your brief discussion regarding deep drawing of 'mine shell' cannon projectiles was essentially correct, but might benefit from a bit of expanded content. Casting is generally a cheaper process than drawing when it comes to capital equipment required to start production, however, once the equipment and process is in place and the volume reaches a sufficient level, drawing is cheaper per part. This is why beverage cans are deep drawn instead of cast. Deep drawing steel parts is more difficult than some other metals such as brass or aluminum, requiring more steps in the process, often several intermediate drawing steps, each requiring their own pre-form shaped tooling with annealing in between some drawing stages to eliminate cold work induced brittleness. All of the tooling has to be constructed to small tolerances, out of high strength steel alloys with a fine surface finish. It also requires strip steel for the parts in long rolls of the correct alloy, temper, and precision thickness to make the process efficient. Casting gets more difficult the higher the aspect ratio of the part becomes and the thinner the walls of the part get. Deep drawing of a part like a mine shell case may be the only practical way to manufacture it, at least with the desired thin walls. It should also result in a more uniform part, thus producing better accuracy when the projectile is fired.

Brilliant as ever Greg. I was curious to know if you were aware that the RAF observer Bill Foxley was in the film 'Battle of Britain' and played a brief role as Squadron leader Evans where you see his burns from his crash in a Wellington. I can only imagine how terrifying the experience must have been to then be followed by the recovery.

Thanks Tim. Douglas, the Hurricane would be another video, but yes, both the Spitfire and Hurricane got a big boost from 100 octane fuel.

A chance of getting the performance boost that the Hurricane got from the higher octane fuel?

Can’t wait Greg!