The 'Great Debate' - Spitfire vs BF109

[Fenrir]

Originally Posted by TomcatViP

This is inherent to elliptial wings that, ideally (means theoretically), are stalling at once (no tip stalling like with a tapered planform or at the wing roots like a rectangular one).

This is where extra research is your friend Tomcat. Lookup 'washout' in terms of Spitfire wings. You could be surprised.

The Spitfire buffet that so many Spitfire pilots talked about was dure to this washout. The wing stalled at the root first, providing the rumbling feedback that so many Spitfire pilots have quoted as riding - the outer wing and the ailerons were still flying giving until the stalled airflow moved outwards if the turn was tightned or speed decreased or both.

So, wrong on that one I'm afraid.