Jennings Heilig Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 If this doesn't bring a smile to your face and/or a tear to your eye, you're made of some tough stuff... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidelvy Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Excellent stuff. Thanks for that Jennings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Millman Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Superb. Thanks. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 (edited) Fabulous stuff, lots of details in there as well. Thanks for posting. Interesting that the Spitfire PR.XI had as good as or better range than the reconnaissance Lightnings. Regarding the Flying Sergeant scheme, were they Sergeant's only during flight training or did they end up as Sergeant pilot's on operational units? I thought all US pilots were commissioned. Wez Edited May 28, 2013 by Wez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev67 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Very good I wonder if he is still alive as he was 83 in 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feifeitim Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 A wonderful video - well found! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Good find Jennings. Excellent film and lots of fascinating detail. If you go to about 6:17 you will see a Spitfire with what appears to be some sort of square patch on the fuselage at the wing root. It looks a bit crude and I've never seen that before. Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko_1 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 (edited) Great film - thanks for posting that Jennings. Simon Edit: there's a great colour photo of PA944 here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24554019@N06/3684567010/sizes/o/in/photostream/ Some interesting details can be seen: the star and bar looks to have been painted over by hand, as have the black and white invasion stripes. The serial is also on the rear fuselage, but is missing the 'P'. It also has what look like red mission markings on the forward fuselage. Edited May 28, 2013 by Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOAN Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 ..."That was the sweetest aeroplane a pilot should fly...." Great video. Thanks for sharing. Olivier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjames68 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Very moving, absolutely teriffic Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve27752 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Superb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Brilliant - thank you, Jennings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Fabulous pilot, great filmmaker (both of them)! Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Well worth watching. Thanks for posting. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennings Heilig Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 (edited) Some interesting details can be seen: the star and bar looks to have been painted over by hand, as have the black and white invasion stripes. The serial is also on the rear fuselage, but is missing the 'P'. It also has what look like red mission markings on the forward fuselage. I've been looking at a *lot* of photos of Overlord ID stripes recently. It is my belief that what we're seeing is the result of using RAF washable paint for the stripes. When the order to remove them came along, the offending parts were scrubbed off, discoloring (sorry, discolouring) the paint underneath. At first I thought we were seeing a 1943 red bordered insignia that had had the red overpainted with mismatched blue, but the first PR.XIs were delivered to the USAAF in November '43, two months after the order changing the border color. There's no reason an obsolete insignia would have been applied at that time, and there are no photos of a Spit PR.XI with red bordered insignias that I've ever seen. I think the washable paint may have been harder to get off than people realized, resulting in a very common 'look' to the areas, on many types of a/c, where it happened. I suspect there was residual white pigment that was ground down into the underlying paint, with the result that you get a whitish 'ghosting' where the scrubbing took place. I've had the same thing happen with model paint (inadvertently - now ask me to try and replicate it!). PA944 did indeed have red Maltese cross mission markings, which were fairly common in the 14th PRS. Edited May 28, 2013 by Jennings Heilig 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeley Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Wonderful. I was grinning like a loon from ear to ear from about 11:05 minutes onwards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Ekedahl Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Most ejoyable! Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamf Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Thanks Jennings, That's the best thing I've seen on here yet, very clear, good sound and well directed. It did a bring a tear to my eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Excellent stuff. Thanks for that Jennings. Actually, Pete in Riyadh posted this "USAAF PR Spitfire on film"-topic almost a week ago but few seemed to notice it, back then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Av8fan Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 (edited) Here is a build by MR. Tony Bell. Can this be achieved with any of the Airfix kits? http://www.hsgalleries.com/spitfireprxitb_1.htm The details of the build http://www.rollmodels.net/nreviews/airplanes/SpitXI/spit.htm Edited May 29, 2013 by Av8fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfires Forever Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 A nice piece of the Spitfire saga, it would be great to find a similar documentary about the recon Mosquitos. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephLalor Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 (edited) Was the Maltese cross used as a mission symbol because a component of that shape was part of a movie camera? Liked that a lot. Joseph Edited May 30, 2013 by JosephLalor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blythsco Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 My thanks to all on your kind comments about the movie and pilot. He will be 91 in June and is enjoying the attention. Spitfire Addict you are absolutely right about the need for a documentary on the recon Mosquitos. My father loved the MK XI but really wanted to fly a Mosquito at least once. The great pilots from RAF Benson would come over to Mount Farm's mess hall on Sundays so he met a bunch of them and has fond memories of the encounters. All the best Scott Blyth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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