![]() The "Emergency" red lever is a powered CO2 cylinder backup for the undercarriage. ![]() The detail of the pipe routing is excellent and mostly here for the gear, with the correct clips and holders to place the piping perfectly. a clever detail, because for one it shows you the age of the aircraft, but also gives the cockpit a very authentic feel than the usual painted piping. The first thoughts on the detail is the excellent use of the brass and copper piping within the cockpit. I have as mentioned sat in a Spit, so the view and detail is very authentic here, it is quite tight and confined when in there. Open the canopy and drop the little left door to see inside, and this is what I call the "classic airshow view", you can look in to the cockpit but don't touch. the front hardened glass is well done as well, with the clearer gunsight area laid out in the box centre, which is a nice detail. The bubble's convex is perfect upwards and outwards for realism, the new rain effects (librain) work on the glass surfaces also. There are a few scratches on the top of the bubble for realism, but the great detail is the finger/hand marks on the rear left window, that you touch to get into the aircraft is a nice touch of detail. The bubble acrylic canopy that was a new material at the start of WW2 replaced the earlier heavier glass canopies, but acrylic was perfect for a fighter. So don't expect huge detail here, but it is still good, with the correct in wheel housing wing ribs showing, as is the protruding oil cooler and the supercharger-intercooler radiators (the radiators on both wings note it is a later version). The undercarriage on the Spitfire is quite basic, Early models (prior to the 175th production aircraft) actually had no hydraulic gear extension system, and were pumped up with a lever, later versions had a pump driven by the engine. But still getting it right can be the difference between good and really great. Glass is the deal breaker, but glass today is usually now always very good. the modeling of the surfaces are also excellent, the wings and tailplane shapes are perfect as is the ribbed rudder construction. The newer X-Plane PBR effects certainly help, but the NML files are really well done (NML is the effect of raising areas of the modeling or bumps, say here the rivets) and the rivets and ribs are done with precision and so are the construction panels of the aircraft. I have seen enough Spitfires in my time to know when it is detailed correctly (yes I have sat in one as well). And FlyingIron are a very highly skilled development studio. X-Plane design and detail has come a long way in three years. This Spitfire is also the second Spitfire for X-Plane after the RW Design's version but that was a Mark l and released three years ago for X-Plane10. This is the second aircraft from Flying Iron after their after the Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, which in my eyes was the most ugliest aircraft to ever fly. ![]() ![]() But it was still that higher victory-to-loss ratio in the Battle of Britain that sealed the aircraft's legendary status. Although mostly related to the earlier World War ll battles the Spitfire was actually more effective later in the war with the later Mk IX's over the most built V's (6,487) and it was by then a far more formidable weapon and more so as high-speed photo-reconnaissance aircraft. ![]() Take the aircraft into the wrong G - force or steep dive and the power spluttered, but it was a miracle in manoeuvrability and could out-turn almost anything, but mostly Bf-109's. The Spitfire aircraft also had an achilles heel in that it was a carburettor design on its powerful Rolls Royce Merlin (PV-12) V-12 piston aero-engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. But the Supermarine Spitfire was a class aircraft on it's own, only problem was we couldn't build them fast enough. In reality it was the numbers of the cheaper Hawker Hurricane that was the backbone of the RAF in 1939/1940 and in the Battle of Britain in that fateful summer. It is an iconic quote and usually accompanied by the usual iconic image of a Spitfire, the fighter machine that was flown by the few that we owe so much to. The quote is from a wartime speech made by the British prime minister Winston Churchill on 20 August 1940. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" Classic Aircraft Review : Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc by FlyingIron ![]()
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