Spitfire or Mustang?

[Red Tail]

Might have to put the improved Nerf Guns in The Spit.
Will use the suction cup darts.
The P-51 will look like a porcupine when it lands

Paint balls!

[JDK]

One of the best ever airshow 'aerobatic' displays I ever saw was Stephen Gret in the Bearcat and Ray Hanna in the Sea Fury at a Duxford Flying Legends. Two masters, the two pinnacles of piston power aviation. I'm not sure how much real competition there was, but it's certain no-one wanted to come second there!

It's a great idea, but I'd just add you'd lose nothing by making sure the commentary and approach was well above the "my dad's bigger than your dad" territory: You could easily introduce and show some of the two type's respective advantages, rather than just having the Mustang 'win', which is comforting in the US, but meaningless in terms of the type and pilot's capabilities.

Thanks for asking. (I nearly didn't bother clicking on the thread, because... Well, you know. Transatlantic mud.)

Regards,

[51fixer]

Might have to put the improved Nerf Guns in The Spit.
Will use the suction cup darts.
The P-51 will look like a porcupine when it lands

Paint balls!

Then you need an Armor Plated P-63.

[jaybird]

This must be a rhetorical question. Of course I'd love to see it!! In all seriousness, whatever is put together for the demo, I'm sure I would enjoy seeing it happen. The only problem to overcome with the concept I can see though is thinking through the fact that you surely won't be operating at "shoot or be shot" operating limits of pilot/plane, and it's at low altitude, so how do you assemble flying sequences that lead the audience to answer the question?

Hope you guys do it.

Good question. I think what we would do is some actual dog fighting. By starting the demo off - head to head - it would start an actual engagement. This engagement of course would need to comply with the limits of the FAA Box, but I think we could beat it up pretty good. We'd then allow each aircraft - to have it's own few minutes of demo - then let the crowd decide which they think won the fight and or is the better fighter. Each audience member will have its own views and or not know yet, because this is the first time anyone has asked them - or that they have seen these two types of aircraft at the same time. Lots of things we can do here, but appreciate the feedback - helpful in thinking through what we can do to make it more life-like and engaging. Also, I forgot to mention - people in the audience will be able to text for the results and the airshow boss will be able to (in real time) report the results from the audience - it will be provided free of charge. For example, text 12258 if you think the Mustang won, text 12259 if you think the spitfire won.

The text vote/audience participation idea is a great one! Innovative and fun. For the dogfight portion, maybe various starting attack positions could be duplicated for each fighter (swap positions and do it again). For non-dogfight comparisons, maybe various performances are compared split-screen style (opposite ends of the box), such as altitude gained from a set level flight entry speed, or minimum radius turns from a set entry speed (although G could become a factor preventing actual airplane capabilities)....or whatever you could come up with.

Will be very cool.

[P51Mstg]

Honestly, if for safety reasons than nothing else, its a dissimilar two airplane acro routine.... Doing it at low levels where these planes weren't supposed be at is somewhat less than safe and proves nothing to the crowd where the majority of the people don't even know that those are two different airplanes...

But tell me where and when and I'll be there with the cameras to take the pictures. I get a couple good ones like that a season. Best was at Reno 2007, then 2011.....

Mark H

[K5DH]

Who cares which airplane "wins"? IMHO, the winners will be the spectators who get to witness a pair of legendary fighters beating up the airfield!

The down side is that I won't get to see it, except maybe on YouTube.

[RandolphB]

I think Jim will have to hold her back. Better hope he doesn't let the horses run!
Merlins are for Boys,
Griffons are for Men
HA!

That's true. You'ed need to throw a Griffon Powered Mustang into the mix to screw everything up......

[marine air]

THat sounds like a neat idea. Kind of hype them up before their 'aerial duel" or better yet, if's an event for the masses, do it like a tv singing or dance competition ; The announcer or pilot brags and boasts about his airplane, its design, whats better, British or American engineering, that kind of stuff. Get the crowd cheering for their favorite. Each aircraft displaying it's "talents" then the crowd gets to cheer for their favorite with a winner picked by the loudest cheering.
It may sound a little silly , but no one has ever created an airshow act that had crowd interaction. The winner doing a version of a "touchdown dance" while the loser has to land in front of the crowd thus eating crow.

[Robbie Stuart]

The only problem I see with that idea is your not coming to NC.

Or GA.
Robbie

[amckenna03]

THat sounds like a neat idea. Kind of hype them up before their 'aerial duel" or better yet, if's an event for the masses, do it like a tv singing or dance competition ; The announcer or pilot brags and boasts about his airplane, its design, whats better, British or American engineering, that kind of stuff. Get the crowd cheering for their favorite. Each aircraft displaying it's "talents" then the crowd gets to cheer for their favorite with a winner picked by the loudest cheering.
It may sound a little silly , but no one has ever created an airshow act that had crowd interaction. The winner doing a version of a "touchdown dance" while the loser has to land in front of the crowd thus eating crow.

Agree. The crowd will be able to text there choice and the air boss or announcer will be able to- in real time say who won. Each performance and audience location reading or Atlantic city may have different tastes. We do need to answer the question, which is the better fighter - the p51 or the spitfire?

[Mark Allen M]

We do need to answer the question, which is the better fighter - the p51 or the spitfire?

Why? I kind of like the idea of that question not being answered, that way there will always be that competition not only flying them but restoring them. If one is proven to be better than the other that could cause a lack of attention and restorations of one over the other. All ya need to know right here ...
http://www.aviatia.net/ww2versus/spitfi ... -spitfire/

....... Of course that was just a bunch of BS I just wrote

Still sounds like a super idea you guys are proposing so get er done!!!

Last edited by Mark Allen M on Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Mark Allen M]

Double post for some reason