A Remarkable Young Lady

[Hedgehog]

Secret weapon behind the Spitfire – a 13-year-old north London schoolgirl (Hazel Hill), who is now being recognised for her war-winning work that could changed the outcome of the 'Battle of Britain', if not for her and her father proving the need - for eight guns on the early models of the spitfire instead of just the four. The 'Battle of Britain' began 80 years ago this day. As an aside, I will go watch the film 'Battle of Britain' (1969) today during this Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic with a slight difference today, remembering the thousands of others as well (air crew, engineers, ground staff and many more) as well as the pilots who had a hand in helping win this important battle.

 

[Bulletpoint]

Interesting. But the video doesn't explain her role very well, and why is it that eight guns were necessary?

"With eight guns firing, they only had 2 seconds to hit their target before pulling away, and they had to get incredibly close - just 250 yards".

Would have been great if they told us how the plane would do if it only had 4 guns.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

Interesting. But the video doesn't explain her role very well, and why is it that eight guns were necessary?

"With eight guns firing, they only had 2 seconds to hit their target before pulling away, and they had to get incredibly close - just 250 yards".

Would have been great if they told us how the plane would do if it only had 4 guns.

I think it’s the theory of “ if you throw enough crap at a wall, some of it is going to stick”. In what I read about her she and her dad worked up a mathematical formula where they could quantitatively prove that 8 guns would do more critical damage than 4. Let’s face it, a really good pilot will get kills with a single gun, but I believe what the math proved was you could do more critical damage with 8 than 4. Fascinating story nonetheless.

 

[Josey Wales]

I was listening to this story on BBC Radio Berkshire only yesterday. Apparently 8 guns was just enough to tip the balance in the RAF's favour, but they didn't explain why.

 

[Hedgehog]

I think it’s the theory of “ if you throw enough crap at a wall, some of it is going to stick”. In what I read about her she and her dad worked up a mathematical formula where they could quantitatively prove that 8 guns would do more critical damage than 4. Let’s face it, a really good pilot will get kills with a single gun, but I believe what the math proved was you could do more critical damage with 8 than 4. Fascinating story nonetheless.

Like you say more crap thrown at a target must be more affective, Which brings us to the point that it did do the job ....,, which in my book as got to be a winner mate

 

[Bulletpoint]

I guess the point the video is trying to make is that no matter how many guns the plane has, it has to get quite close to hit the target, and it only has two seconds to fire before it needs to break off to avoid getting hit by return fire.

So the amount of damage that can be dished out during those two seconds has to be enough to down the enemy plane. There's a very big difference between bringing down the plane and having it return to base for refit and repair.

However, I still dont understand why this had to be proven by difficult mathematics. 8 is the double of 4. Double the guns, double the damage.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

Okay, as near as I can tell the calculations that Hazel Hill and her father came up with dealt with proving that 8 guns on an aircraft were possible. Apparently the conventional aircraft design wisdom of the day argued that 4 guns with ammo was all a plane could carry. However, Hazel and her father’s calculations showed that 8 guns were feasible. This resulted in the Hurricane and Spitfire ending up with more guns. Insert “throw more crap at the wall” from that point on.