Overview

Innumerable books have been published on the two most famous fighter aircraft of all time, the Supermarine Spitfire and the Messerschmitt Bf109. But books setting out to tell the story of both aircraft are very much rarer - probably fewer than the fingers of one hand. Yet their joint story is one which bears retelling since both were essential to the air campaigns of World War Two. Incredibly, the men who designed them lacked any experience of designing a modern fighter. R J Mitchell had begun his career working on industrial steam locomotives, Willy Messerschmitt had cut his aeronautical teeth on light and fragile gliders and sporting planes. Yet both men not only managed to devise aircraft which could hold their own in a world where other designs went from state-of-the-art to obsolete in a staggeringly short time, but their fighters remained competitive over six years of front-line combat. Despite the different ways their creators approached their daunting tasks and the obstacles each faced in acceptance by the services for which they were designed, they proved to be so closely matched that neither side gained a decisive advantage in a titanic struggle. Had either of them not matched up to its opponent so well, then the air war would have been a one-sided catastrophe ending in a quick defeat for the Allies or the Axis powers, and the course of twentieth century history would have been changed beyond recognition. 150 illustrations

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9781473828063

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Reviews

This book is the most elaborate 'air war history book' that I have ever laid my hands on. It starts off in the after days of WWI and 'flies' on into the Korean War. Almost all airplane types of the on British and German side 'along flying.' Nations (striking exception: Fokker) are technically as well as operationally described with great detail. Also the designers of the airplanes and the power play in which they managed to bring their design to series construction, is extensively set out...at. All in all a book that is hard to put down once you have started in it! --Aviation Reviews

This book is the most elaborate 'air war history book' that I have ever laid my hands on. It starts off in the after days of WWI and 'flies' on into the Korean War. Almost all airplane types of the on British and German side 'along flying.' Nations (striking exception: Fokker) are technically as well as operationally described with great detail. Also the designers of the airplanes and the power play in which they managed to bring their design to series construction, is extensively set out...at. All in all a book that is hard to put down once you have started in it! -- Aviation Reviews

Author Information

Engineering graduate, University of Manchester, began career working on anti-aircraft missiles in the aerospace industry before turning to writing, film and TV production on a wide range of subjects. These include two series for BBC Television on the 'Thursday War' exercises for newly commissioned warships and on the story of naval aviation, and one for BBC Radio Four on deception and psychology in warfare . Thirty books published to date covering automotive engineering, motor sport, forensic science, espionage, criminal profiling, air crash investigation and anti-submarine warfare. Dogfight: Spitfire versus Messerschmitt Bf109 is number thirty-one.

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