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Senior Member
Spitfire and Bf-109
Puts some things into perspective. In both cases we're given an idea of the compromises made in aircraft design at the time.
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Senior Member
Good stuff 
The Bf 109 cockpit is tiny, even compared to a Spit...
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Senior Member
Note: the bulged Malcolm hood (the circular 'blown' outer canopy section shown in blue for the Spitfire), as shown in the cross section above, was in the cross section above, was introduced sometime around late 1941/early 1942. Before that that canopy was of more limited size, shown by the inner section. The earliest Sitfire canopy did not have the top bulged section.
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Banned
The difference of a handwidth or less does make a big difference in perception of 'tight'.
It's like shoes one or two sizes apart. Without a foot inside the difference looks almost nothing but you know it
without looking, the shoe that fits.
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Member
very nice videos that you've found Matatron_123! Very interesting for me as a mainly 109flyer in the game and I also fly Spits very often.
Kurfürst; very nice grahic you've schown here! Thanks
~S~
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Senior Member
I once sat in a restored Bf 109 G-2 (rebuilt from Spanish Buchon, static display only) which is owned by the Messerschmitt Stiftung. My height is quite average (1,85m) but I'm quite bulky with broad shoulders. It would have been impossible for me to fly this crate since I felt like stuck in a benchwise. Being tall isn't a problem (a friend of mine who's taller than me sat in as well and was "quite comfortable"), but having broad shoulders is. The upper edge of the fuselage (where the canopy sits on it) was located directly under my shoulders and it really locked me in. I guess this may have been different if we could have adjusted the seat, but I don't know for sure.
The question of "tight" is most probably a question of personal build, but I always wonder how people like Hannes Trautloft or Friedrich Bekh (both well above 1,90m in height) managed to cram themselves into a 109.
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Senior Member
His initial reaction upon sitting inside the 109 is amusing.
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Senior Member
Nice links.
I must say I always thought there was more room than that in the 109 cockpit. It looks like a tight fit.
So this is a bit inaccurate then!? - The 'Hollywood version':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...uzMM&feature=related
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Senior Member

Either the pilot's a dwarf on a very thick seat cushion or the designer has no clue how small the cockpit of the 109 really is.
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Senior Member
Great links, thanks for posting. It brings home the reality of the cokcpits compared to us sitting in comfortable office chairs, plenty of room, maybe a beer on the desk