On your recent 'Monster Moves' programme, you showed a Spitfire being transported to the USA. It was stated that the person receiving the spitfire had a world war 1 tiger moth. The DeHavilland Tiger Moth did not make it's maiden flight until 1931. It's cousin, the Gipsy Moth flew some 6 years earlier. The First World War ended on 11th November 1918. The programme also stated that the Spitfire went into production just before the second world war, and was developed using the Packard Merlin engine. This is not correct. Packard (USA) were not licensed to produce Merlin engines until 1941, and even then I do not believe they were ever used in main-build Spitfires.
Friday 15 July 2011 4:24PM
On your recent 'Monster Moves' programme, you showed a Spitfire being transported to the USA. It was stated that the person receiving the spitfire had a world war 1 tiger moth. The DeHavilland Tiger Moth did not make it's maiden flight until 1931. It's cousin, the Gipsy Moth flew some 6 years earlier. The First World War ended on 11th November 1918. The programme also stated that the Spitfire went into production just before the second world war, and was developed using the Packard Merlin engine. This is not correct. Packard (USA) were not licensed to produce Merlin engines until 1941, and even then I do not believe they were ever used in main-build Spitfires.