Stability and Control characteristics of the Early Mark Spitfires

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by taildraggernut

Yep, and if instability was a problem then Mustangs would have been falling out of the sky too, oddly enough the Mustang case was the reverse situation with regards to fuel load, a full fuselage tank made it unstable in all conditions.

Exactally!

Fact of the mater is most if not all modern fighers are designed to be unstable.. It is what makes them so manuverable..

It is true now and it was true than

Only difference is today it takes a computer to act as a middle man between the pilot and the plane to keep it from falling out of the sky.. Where as in WWII the pilot was responsable.. That is to say they can make them even more unstable and thus more manuverable today due to computers..

In summary

What ever the instability was in WWII wrt the Spit, Mustang, etc..

It was not so much that the pilot could not deal with it to get the job done..

Put another way a cessna is a great plane for modern civ pilots in that it is so stable that it practaly flys itself better when the civ pilot lets go of the stick.. But a cessna is not and would not make a good WWII figher!