In the opening paragraph of a news item marking the anniversary of the Spitfire's maiden flight, the BBC endorses one of the myths associated with this iconic British warplane.
The 70th anniversary of the first flight of a fighter aircraft which became Britain's main defender in the Battle of Britain is being celebrated.What's wrong with that? Well, the Spitfire wasn't Britain's main defender during the Battle of Britain. If any plane deserves that accolade it's the Hawker Hurricane.
A total of 1,715 Hurricanes flew with Fighter Command during the period of the Battle, far in excess of all other British fighters combined. Having entered service a year before the Spitfire, the Hurricane was "half-a-generation" older, and was markedly inferior in terms of speed and climb. However, the Hurricane was a robust, manoeuvrable aircraft capable of sustaining fearsome combat damage before write-off; and unlike the Spitfire, it was a wholly operational, go-anywhere do-anything fighter by July 1940. It is estimated that its pilots were credited with four-fifths of all enemy aircraft destroyed in the period July-October 1940.I'd mail the BBC about the mistake but I'd probably just get a letter from Louise.
UPDATE
I guess I wasn't the only one to notice - the BBC has now rewritten the opening paragraph to remove the error.
