More long-range Spitfires and daylight Bomber Command raids, with added nationalistic abuse (was: #1 Jet of World War II)

John Halliwell wrote:

In article , Dave Eadsforth
writes
Some penny-pinching accountant at work perhaps?

I was always mystified by the fact that the Spitfire didn't get full
wheel-well covers until late in the war - they went to all that trouble
gluing split peas all over the wing to optimise the placement of flush
and round headed rivets and missed out on some thing that seems even
more obvious (unless the drag from the wheel well really was
inconsequential up to speeds of 400 mph or so - but that seems a bit
counter instinctive).

I think originally it simplified the gear retraction 'hydraulics'. The
first Spits had a hand pump to retract the gear, which required IIRC 27
pumps to fully retract it. I guess the full wheel well covers probably
came along with the retractable tail wheel (possibly more important?) as
well?

No, they were removed to simplify things at RAF suggestion in spec. F.16/36,
dated 28 July 1936, which entailed the changes to be made from the
prototype. F.16/36 was the spec for the first production contract (on 3
June 1936) for 310 a/c, which lists thirty-three seperate paragraphs, each
entailing one change:

Para xxi: "Provided no reduction in the performance will be entailed, the
hinged flaps on the wheels may be replaced by fixed flaps which, when
retracted, will not cover the wing apertures completely." Presumably no
significant reduction in performance resulted, at least not at the speed the
a/c was then capable of attaining.

Guy