UKH

It's not the best of descriptions, but there's a famous image (in certain circles) of a picture taken of a Spitfire flying towards the photopgrapher taken from another aircraft, of the Spitfire flying towards them with the plane banked sideways. 

I've seen some pictures of swifts (apus-apus common swift) which remind me of Spitfires, including one where the bird is banked over, and wanted to find the described Spitfire picture as well.

If anybody has a flag in their mind go 'ping' from my discription and knows the book, or just the picture, that would be great, some vague background context is a challenge associated with the picture was stopping the two aircraft from crashing in mind air.

Have you tried using Google image search for the term 'Spitfire banking'?

I'd tried every other discription of a Spitfire flying in that orientation other than 'banking', which has provided results. Many thanks. 

It's curious how the obvious can go overlooked. 

https://www.rafmuseumphotos.com/world-war-two/supermarine-spitfire-xiv-1913...

It's this picture from the Charles Brown collection.

Brilliant! Glad you found it.

Especially when you used the term in your OP!

Yes, if minds were logical, life would be different. 

Helpfully for my own peace of mind, I accepted they're not a long time ago.

It's a 1943 picture taken of the well known pilot Jeffery Quill flying Spitfire rb140.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jeffrey-quill-1340389.ht...

He was a test pilot.

A fascinating difference between man-made aeroplanes and birds is that birds do not bank their heads with their wings: instead, they keep their eyes in a more-or-less horizontal plane to maintain the best possible binocular vision.

Yes, that's what struck me with the swift picture I saw, though the elegance of the two is similar, the eliptical wing of the Spitfire may have been about function, but it was beautiful too.

It's odd isn't it how a machine designed to kill can be a thing of beauty?

I don't understand this:

"some vague background context is a challenge associated with the picture was stopping the two aircraft from crashing in mind air."

Interesting - thanks. You may have read Capt Eric Winkle Browns book - Wings on my sleeve - from memory he flew all the German WW2 planes, including the rocket ones ! Captivating story! 

Possibly, but I guess from a maths perspective, and symmetry being pleasing to the eye, it's maybe not so odd, though I get your emotional point. 

I've found Lancasters more unsettling from that perspective, that though they're impressive machines, the thought of their payloads landing on Germany is never a good one.

Perhaps battles between fighter pilots seems more sporting, with pilots on both sides talking about getting a good feeling if 'the other chap' made it out of their aircraft in time.

There were instances apparently of fighter pilots on both sides sparing stricken bombers after seeing the crew struggling to stay airborne and alive, but war is obviously awful.

I bought it for my Dad for Xmas, I plan to visit soon, I may ask to borrow it, and post it to him when I'm done.

Very interesting, didn't know that. But it gets my mind racing that if their head is more or less horizontal how that'd affect their navigation compared to being in a plane 

I think by keeping their head horizontal it must give them navigational benefits beyond just comparing inner ear versus horizon/eyes without doing that? Dunno.. just pondering if that could be?

They were probably flying quite close together, a gust in the right direction could probably have caused a collision I guess?

From John’s post I assumed the benefits were more about maintaining field of vision in the directions that predators and prey are most likely to appear from. I’d assume that any blind spot birds have are likely to be underneath them when their head is horizontal, and airborne predators are likely to approach from above to take advantage of dive speed. Moving the head in line with a banking body the head potentially moves the blind spot to a more vulnerable position.

I wonder if a fairly static head position also helps avoid dizziness when changing direction quickly, in much the way ballet dancers keep eyes on a fixed point as much as possible when spinning. 

I’ll look it up later and see if my guesses are in the right ballpark…

By keeping their heads horizontal, their whole positioning system, visual or otherwise, is keeping relatively still (somewhat like a gyro).

Not the image you were looking for but thought I'd share - was rather pleased with this shot from Duxford in 2015 Battle of Britain Airshow