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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1604.PDF
AUGUST I6TH, 1945 FLIGHT Flying the Spitfire A Few Impressions of One of the Later Spitfire Marks; The War's Ever*young Veteran : Main* taining Consistent Handling Qualities with Quantity Production By "INDICATOR" LTHOUGH the more markcd^Bect on aeronautical, other engineenngydevelopment, it times, to remeoj35er_ th progress—and cause more qoncentrat possible, progress, at more rapid t^an it wou Some of tiife b« entirely developed it is not suggested ate progress, the knowledge would design of civil and delving deeply into the history of the different firms, and of the persons concerned with these firms, it would be impossible to produce an accurate list of outstanding mili- tary aircraft which were actually planned, and even experi- mentally flown, before the outbreak of war, but a few can , safely be mentioned. /*• From the point of view of British survival, the most important, of course, were the Hurricane and Spitfire. The former, I believe, is still doing good work in the Far East, though, after an almost incredible lease of life when loaded with cannons, bombs, rockets and extra tanks, it can now be considered as obsolescent. The latter, in vastlyjfcfier- ent form, but basically the Spitfire of 1938, is stiff going as strongly as ever. With twice its original pow-er and nearly twice its early performance, it has lost few, if any, of its original favourable flying characteristics. Among the few other aircraft which, I believe, were-flying before the Euro- pean war and which were still being used in basically the same form for front-line operations at its termination, are the Douglas Boston (an outstandingly good aircraft from the handling point of view), the Junkers 88, and, if one can allow such extreme changes as have been made in lay- out and armament, the Boeing Fortress. But the Spitfire ' holds a big lead in length of active service on any. Not that one would suggest for a moment that the Spit- fire XIV is merely a Spitfire I with more power and equip- ment. Gradual detailed^ development has made it vastly different, but the "sbrfpe," structure and, most important °f all, the, handling qualities have remained much the same. The pilot of the I or II might find the XIV some- or though not acceler- was available, and this 'ry have jbeen applied to the iry types in due course. Without thing of a handful for a start, with its long nose, increased power and greater all-up weight, but he would soon accustom himself to the differences and would recog- nise the essential " Spitfireness " of the ensemble. A few circuits would convince him that its somewhat savage and purposeful look, in comparison with the concealing elegance of earlier marks, is a camouflage for a set of comparatively mild habits. Nevertheless, there might have been some justification for the re-naming of the type with the introduction of the XIV. The additional power of the Griffon engine, and the fact that it turns round the other way with a somewhat marked torque effect, makes both this and subsidiary marks "feel" different—particularly while on and near the ground. The majority of pilots, as they climb ou"t of their first XIV after a long experience of the earlier marks, are inclined to say: "Nice, fast, handleable flying machine— but it ain't a Spitfire no more. ..." Since Merlin-engined VIIIs, IXs and XIs were, and still are, in action on the fighting fronts, a change of name would still have left the Spitfire with the honour of being the war's ever-young veteran. Marks and Engines For the assistance of those who have no reason to be au fait with tfee somewhat bewildering series of marks in the Spitfire series—and for whom, perhaps, the use of Roman numerals involves a series of calculations rather after the manner of those needed in translating twenty- four-hour-clock times to ancient English—it might be as well to sort out same of the later types in so far as the censor will permit. Excluding the little-used or obsoles- cent marks, the Seafire III, and the Spitfire V, VII, VIII, IX, XI and XVI are all Merlin-engined. Engine mark numbers have reached such heights that the Roman method of numerology has had to be discontinued, and we can say that they are powered, variously, and according to their age and uses, with Merlin 45, 55, 61, 63, 64, 66, 70, 71 and 266—which last is merely the Packard-built 66 fitted to the XVI, nnd which, again, is merely a variation of the IX. The VII and XI are P.R.U. types, and the VIII is, curiously enough, an "advanced" form of the IX, with retractable tail-wheel and various other refinements. The apparent numerical inconsistency was caused by produc-
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