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SPITFIRE.TXT
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1993-10-16
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SPITFIRES GALORE !!
by Mark Nixon,
Nanoose Bay, B.C., Canada
CompuServe ID: 72110,1170 Date: 15 October 1993
This ZIP contains a number of other ZIPs each of which consists of a complete
Supermarine Spitfire, ready to fly and accompanied by its .AFX file so that
you can monkey about with the aircraft to your heart's content. I ask only
that you respect my copyright to the extent of passing on, unaltered, the
complete ZIP of each individual plane, if you feel that anyone else would
like a copy. Apart from that, you are welcome to alter the aircraft in any
way you want for your own purposes: you'll probably be able to improve on
the flying characteristics (as I'm not a pilot, I have no way of telling if
the Spits handle as the prototypes did!); the complexity of the simulations
preclude their use in multi-aircraft Flight Simulator setups, so you may
wish to reduce detail; or you may like to remove some insignia and
substitute your own. On the last subject: some of the aircraft have
prototypically correct serial numbers and some don't! Some have RAF
roundels, etc., but not all - there isn't enough 'room' to put everything in,
much as I would have liked to! The Spitfire experts will be able to decide
which serials, etc., are correct!! The other poor ignorant s*ds will just
have to enjoy the flying!!! <Grin>
For reference, the outlines were traced from "Spitfire in Action" by Jerry
Scutts, published as Aircraft No. 39, by Squadron/Signal Publications, of
Carrollton, TX.
A lot of the other details were found in "Spitfire, the History" by Eric B.
Morgan & Edward Shacklady, published in 1987 by Key Publishing Ltd, P.O. Box
100, Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, PE9 1XQ for ú39.95. (In Canada, in
1990, it cost $99.50 !! - but WELL worth it, if you're a Spitfire nut like
me.) It goes into incredible detail, such as listing all the serial numbers
of all the Spitfires ever made with a potted history of each. The front and
back end-papers show small but detailed side views, in colour, of more
different-looking Spitfires than I could have imagined existed. None of the
simulated aircraft in this ZIP follows any of them with more than approximate
accuracy! (Most of the liveries I have used were chosen to make the aircraft
easily visible in the Flight Simulator environment.)
The Spitfires I have included in this ZIP are:-
Mark 1a: as flown in the Battle of Britain with 8 Browning .303 machine-guns.
Mark Vb: produced mainly to counter the Bf 109f; the Vb has 2 cannon, 4 MGs.
Mark VIIHF: high-altitude version; longer span, larger tail & pressurisation.
Mark IXc: an interim version to match Fw 190; a very well-thought-of variant.
Mark XIV (high deck version): 1st Griffon-engined Spit in full production.
- 2 -
All are complete with .SIM and .PRF files and all seem to be air-worthy!
I have equipped (lumbered?!) all with 'fully-operational' landing gear,
flaps, airscrews, canopies and even cockpit doors. Removal of any or all of
these cosmetic addenda is at the discretion and personal risk of the user.
No warranty, expressed or implied, is given that the aircraft will fly as
Mitchell, Smith (and Nixon!) intended in the absence of such essential pieces
of 'hardware'. However, reducing the complexity does make it easier for the
limited intelligence of MS Flight Simulator 4.0 to cope with redrawing the
screen. Perhaps FS 5.0 will be better; it isn't available here, yet.
For those wondering, Reginald Mitchell designed the original Spitfire in the
mid-1930s; he lived to see it fly, but not to enter squadron service. His
successor as chief designer at Supermarine, Joseph Smith, was responsible for
the development of the many variants that were produced mainly during WWII.
The last Spitfire was Mark 24. The Fleet Air Arm version, the Seafire marks
ran up to 47 and the last one was completed in March 1947, 12 years and 9
months after the flight of the original prototype. Total production of
Spitfires was 20,351 and of Seafires, 2,408.
I've also included a few BMPs of a Spitfire Mk Vb, which were derived from
the "Souvenir Shop" feature of Aircraft Factory; they make pleasant wallpaper,
startup screens or screen blankers. 'Derived' is perhaps an under-statement,
as apart from adding detail, colour, etc., I find that the overall aspect
ratio of the original BMP as saved to the clipboard by AAF is grossly
inaccurate. Has anyone else had this problem?
On the subject of Windows Bitmaps: The most commonly found form is .BMP and
some programs can't use any other type. Unfortunately, .BMP is the most
greedy of formats. The .BMPs included in this ZIP are 640 x 480 pixels and
in only 16 colours, but they each occupy about 150 Kb of space on your hard
disk. But by using the Run Length Encoded (RLE) process, they can be
compressed, without loss of any detail, to about 12 Kb - that is by a factor
of 12. (Actual compression ratio depends on the structure of the graphic
image.) So you can store 12 RLE-encoded bitmaps in the space used for one
.BMP ! Some Windows programs won't accept .RLE files - notably Paintbrush
- so you have to reconvert them to .BMP if you want to employ Paintbrush on
them. A versatile, easy to use graphics conversion program to be found on
Compuserve as shareware is PaintShopPro. It can convert between over 20
different graphics formats. But if you really want to compress your bitmaps
and have an automated wallpaper system, you'd have a job to find a better
program than Wallpaper Manager, also available as shareware. This one can
losslessly compress bitmaps using the GLZ algorithm and in the case of the
above 150 Kb graphic, you will end up with a file using as little as 4 Kb.
Now that's compression! (Again, the exact ratio depends on the individual
graphic. These examples are actual figures obtained from these actual
graphics.) The graphics files in this ZIP are all in .BMP format so anyone
can use them.
(Note: I have no connection with or interest in either of the above
shareware programs, except as a satisfied customer.)
I'd like to produce some more Spitfires in the near future, but as this is
my first attempt at (a) AAF-ing and (b) uploading a file, a lot depends on
how successful it turns out to be. So, feedback would be appreciated!
I hope you enjoy 'flying' the world's most beautiful fighter aircraft - no
ifs ands or buts!!!!