Spitfire BBC4 21:00 26 Sept 2019
 

Heads up on BBC4 21:00 tonight looks to be the best on TV tonight.

Thanks, Javelinboy. I hadn't realised it was the 'big bucks' production that's pay-to-view on other platforms. Some splendid air-to-air filming.

It's on iPlayer for a week or two.

when the tree took off together, one was having gear retraction issues by the looks of things!

Spitfire main undercariage (note, not 'gear'!!) legs are independent of each other and so usually retract at different rates.

Really enjoyed the programme, especially the 'talking heads'.

And how refreshing not to have it 'presented' by some media-generated 'personality' but to have genuine personalities allowed to speak for themselves about the part they played in our history.

When one of the "talking heads" mentioned fitting a blower to the back of the engine was he talking about the 1st stage supercharger or the 2nd stage?

Surprisingly excellent and thoroughly enjoyable. The air to air shots were brilliant and show what is technically possible these days. Very professional production. *****! :ok:

It was very good. Sad how many people featured have now passed away though.
I noticed during a head on take off sequence the aircraft was going up and down in pitch as though perhaps the undercarriage was being pumped up but I thought that was only on the early marks?

Second I believe. M & S gear in later life (on Varsities anyway). The Mk9 definitely had two stage supercharger.

Stanley Hooker
 

I haven't yet watched the film however this may help with your question-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Hooker

"In late 1937, while working at the Admiralty he applied for a job at Rolls-Royce, and after being interviewed by Ernest Hives, started there in January 1938. He was permitted to study anything that caught his fancy, and soon moved into the supercharger design department. He started researching the superchargers used on the Merlin engine, and calculated that big improvements could be made to their efficiency. His recommendations were put into the production line for newer versions, notably the Merlin 45, improving its power by approximately 30%, and then the Merlin 61.

The Merlin 45 was fitted into the Spitfire Mk V in October 1940, which was produced in the greatest number of any Spitfire variant. The same year the Air Ministry made a request for a turbocharged Merlin for use in the planned high altitude Wellington VI bomber. Declining the suggestion to use turbocharging,[6] Hooker instead designed a two-stage supercharger for the engine, with the resulting two-stage-supercharged Merlin 61 being fitted into the Spitfire Mk IX, the second most-produced Spitfire variant, which entered service in July 1942. The Merlin 61 arrived in time to give the Spitfire a desperately needed advantage in rate of climb and service ceiling over the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

One major outcome of his work introduced a generalised method of predicting and comparing aircraft engine performance under flight conditions."

Also re hooker on Pprune-
https://www.pprune.org/aviation-hist...l#post10290691

I have just read all of the available Google Books preview of this book and it is amazing. The preview offered to me covers from the start as far as a big chunk of Chapter 2 (The Merlin).

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...page&q&f=false

Watched last night and thought it superb. Possibly the best Battle of Britain documentary made by the Beeb.
Well directed and produced and good use of the ex pilots, men and women, who fleshed out the story so well. Britain was fortunate to have men with vision like Camm, Dowding and Mitchell in the mid Thirties and brave men and women in the Forties.

As mentioned above almost all the pilots interviewed have passed away since the film was made, Paul Farnes is still alive aged 101, so this really was the last word from these amazing people, sobering and very humbling to watch.

Can't see it on i Player, v frustrating, has anyone else got it on catch up?

Just watched it, beautifully photographed. Can't help thinking, if you passed any of those pilots in the street, you'd never guess what they did. Great ending with Mary signing the aircraft again.

Thanks Lancs....................got there. Wow. Brilliant.

Outstandingly good! Beautiful aeros sequence at the finale. I have no time for the BBC usually, but this was an exception. When is the follow-up for the Lancaster being made I wonder?

Living in foreign parts with no access to I-Player, anyone any idea when/if its being repeated..and where ?