Spitfire Mk.II and the BA Hawk. Some musings on how they compare.
During the summer of 1940, very young men were fighting, in MK.II Spitfires, against enemy aircraft intent on destroying Britain's seaports and RAF bases. Now, nearly 70 years later, similar young pilots are training on the BA Hawk. A while back I used a fine photograph of these two great aircraft in formation as the basis of a rather simple comparison between the front-line interceptor of 1940 and the advanced trainer of today. I have been told that the Hawk is the easier aircraft to handle, albeit packed with many more "bells and whistles". The attached item was cobbled together pretty well off 'the-top-of-my-head', so do please forgive any areas where I may have strayed from exact numbers.