Talk:Control reversal

Spitfire

I'm not sure about the section on the Spitfire. They commonly used "clipped" wingtips on Spitfires starting as early as the Mk. IX; the Mk. XXI was late in the production run. And while the explanation may be perfectly accurate, what I had always read is that reducing the wingspan slightly was in order to increase the rate of roll, which is hampered by a longer wing. This is one reason the Bf 109 had a better roll rate than the Spitfire, while the Spitfire had a better sustained turn rate due to it's larger wing area and lower wing loading. On a related point, I dislike the wording, which makes it sound as if the Spitfire had some incredibly fast dive speed; it didn't. Due to a large wing and low wing loading, it was relatively slow in a dive, and picked up speed at a somewhat low rate, much like a Mitsubishi Zero (a P-47 was the opposite; not much for turning, but it would dive like a rock). If it had problems, it was not due to an abnormally high dive velocity, but to its designers not anticipating the forces that it would be subjected to, as it was much faster than earlier aircraft...only other contemporaries like the Bf 109 didn't have the same problems (although they did have their own)..45Colt 07:01, 25 August 2014 (UTC)