Originally Posted by
Justapax1
That's standard with a Spitfire, on the ground all you can see in front of you is the cowling of the 27 litre V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. If you want to see where you are going, you weave. I've only ever sat in the cockpit of a stationary Spitfire (although you can fly one on a PPL, it is by all accounts a bastard to fly) and it's very cramped and the view out is not good. I understand that the noise in the cockpit when the Merlin fires up is deafening, and the plane has a very strong in-built tendency to turn right as all single engined planes do, but amplified by so much power going into the prop.
Well, not all of them. Depends which way the prep rotates. Bigger the engine and prop, the more it will try to turn. Happens in the air as well, pitch and roll. It's just a big gyroscope, after all.