Originally posted by Dead Man Flying
Are you saying that a Spitfire cannot stallfight? [/b]
Jeebs, I'm not picking a fight guys...
I never said it COULD NOT... I said that it was NEVER DONE DELIBERATELY... You could have read my earlier post to get that piece of information. Nobody deliberately set up a low slow condition to win a fight because while it WAS possible, it didn't work (largely because fights are almost never 1v1). So even if you tangle one guy down to the edge of stall, the other guy is going to get you.
A Pitts can also do a lot of things that a Sptifire could do too...
Yes, such as fly, taxi, burn gas... Thats a history lesson I don't really need. The point is there is a vast difference in horsepower, wing loading, speed. An aerobatic plane has a role, to fly right at the edge of flight (and beyond). Fighters are not designed to do that, so once you move beyond the basic aerodynamic discussion and you start look at these two flying machines as what they are, all the other comparisons break down.
If you tell a spit pilot that you know how a spitfire behaves because you flew (or own) a pitts special he's going to laugh you straight out of the crack house...
I'd wager it would be MUCH easier for a spit pilot to get a feel for the pitts than for the pitts pilot to get a handle on the Spit. Why do I say that? Well, can we start with the extra 1700hp and the MASSIVE torque that comes with it? Really, the list is far too long to get into right here. But suffice to say it is a lot like comparing a bottle rocket to a Saturn V.
SO the point is... I respect Mars' experience and defer the points where he is qualified to make a direct comparison... But beyond that, he has no experience that indicates any more direct knowledge of spitfire operations than I have. And if he does have that experience I have asked him to share so that I can become enlightened instead of 'stooopid'.