Spitfire Lady

[Chas]

This is Beatrice Shilling, she designed a modification to the fuel system of WW2 Spitfire's, it gained the name Beatrice Shilling's orifice.
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Miss Shilling's orifice was a very simple technical device made to counter engine cut-out in early Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aeroplanes during the Battle of Britain. While it was officially called the R.A.E. restrictor, it was referred to under various names, such as Miss Tilly's diaphragm or the Tilly orifice in reference to its inventor, Beatrice "Tilly" Shilling.
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[frank rabbets]

I used to have one of those Nortons. I used to walk by my neighbors house every day and ogle at that Norton there. He rode it to work in the summer with his road Norton number plates on it. Then in winter he would swap plates back to his road Norton ES2 as this had lights etc. One day as I walked past for a chat I was looking at the race Norton and he said "take it, it's yours". I was only 14 yo. One moonlit night I rode from Brockworth to Cheltenham and back (no lights). Stunning and exciting. Things were a bit easier in those days. At least I had a front brake unlike the Norton in the photo. Not even a brake lever. That "silencer" is a "Brooklands" can which is what I had so in view she has no front brake the photo could have been taken ay Brooklands.

 

[BobMurphy]

It has the look of a studio portrait - with the background possibly pasted to a board or added afterwards. It looks like Brooklands with that banked track in the background (and no front brake). That's a crackin' bike !

We're all used to the classic approach of WWII pilots when engaging the enemy "Tally-Ho Chaps" as they perform a 'Wing-over" then dive. They had to do that to maintain positive 'G' as the Merlins had a carburettor. If they stuck the nose down to dive the negative 'G' would cause the float to rise cutting the fuel. Miss Tilly's Orifice was a restrictor to prevent fuel surge after such a manoeuvre allowing the engine to pick-up cleanly again. Messershmitt 109s had fuel injection from day-1 and could fly in any attitude with impunity (they also started WWII with a 20mm cannon whereas British fighters were firing rifle bullets)!

Bob.

 

[Chas]

I used to have one of those Nortons.

Yes, that's a gorgeous looking bike real proppa as Guy Martin would say.

 

[goodoldboy]

My kind of lass , able to fettle the carbs on a Merlin.The ME 109s had appalling visibility from the cockpit during takeoff and landing and apparently half of all losses were in accidents not combat.Another thing i heard was that the Spitfire could out turn a 109 . with the latter loosing it's wings if it tried to follow such a tight manoeuvre.

 

[BobMurphy]

The ME 109s had appalling visibility from the cockpit during takeoff and landing and apparently half of all losses were in accidents not combat.

The Spitfire, and for that matter most WWII 'tail draggers', were the same. I believe the Spits had to weave side to side when taxiing so the pilot could see ahead .
Bob.

 

[frank rabbets]

The ME109's had relatively good visibility c/w other conventional fighters of that time. Although they had a V12 engine it was upside down with the narrowest part of the engine comprising the crankshaft casing at the top.

 

[goodoldboy]

The Spitfire, and for that matter most WWII 'tail draggers', were the same. I believe the Spits had to weave side to side when taxiing so the pilot could see ahead .
Bob.

" Because of the large ground angle caused by the long legs, forward visibility while on the ground was very poor, a problem exacerbated by the sideways-opening canopy. This meant that pilots had to taxi in a sinuous fashion which also imposed stresses on the splayed undercarriage legs. Ground accidents were a problem with inexperienced pilots, especially during the later stages of the war when pilots received less training before being sent to operational units.[20] At least 10% of all Bf 109s were lost in takeoff and landing accidents, 1,500 of which occurred between 1939 and 1941.[21] The installation of a fixed "tall" tailwheel on some of the late G-10s and −14s and the K-series helped alleviate the problem to a large extent.[22] from the wikipedia page
Both the Spitfire and the 109 were ground breaking in their design .As for the engines the 109 produced 1455HP against the merlins 1150 , in earlier spitfires up to 1700 in later versions. For an aero engine to sort the men from boys Napier was ahead of RR