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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1312.PDF
The British Schneider Cup team at Calshot in 1931, with the two Supermarine S.6Bs (right and left) and an S.6A, developed from the 1929 S.6. SIRES OF THE SWIFT . . . form one of the most glorious chapters of the history of the air war. They remain—and will continue to do so for many a year— fresh in our memories, so that we may concern ourselves here with technical characteristics, rather than combat achievements. We merely remark in passing that the Spitfire saw action in Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East; that it was flown—and loved—not only by pilots of the R.A.F. and Commonwealth Air Forces, but by those of America, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Free France, Holland, Belgium, Norway and Yugoslavia; and that over 22,000, in thirty-three main variants (including Seafires), were built. These we review in some detail later; but our present theme of Supermarine development demands a resume of evolution and of conditioning factors. The first enemy aircraft to fall to the guns of Spitfires were among those which sporadically raided our shores in the "phoney" war; but the supreme trial and proving of the "Spit" came in the Battle of Britain. Then it was that, alongside the Hurricanes, the Spitfire Is and lis (the second mark had a Merlin XII engine in place of the Merlin III) tore the great, contrailing, formations of Heinkels, Domiers and Junkers apart and lashed their escorting Messerschmitts till die onslaught faltered and ceased. Then the Spitfire achieved as great a measure of immortality as an aircraft ever could. The earliest Spitfires had been fitted with fixed-pitch, two-blade, wooden airscrews, and later with two-pitch, three-blade de Havillands; but these did not allow development of full per formance and, while the Battle of Britain was being fought, D.H. or Rotol constant-speed airscrews were being fitted. Many of these were field-modifications of earlier types. Latterly, on a number of machines, die eight machine-guns were replaced by a pair of 20-mm Hispano cannon in order to penetrate the German armour plate. As was to be expected, the Woolston factory came under heavy attack and the fine buildings which had grown round die site of P.B.'s sheds suffered grave damage. But loss of life was relatively small, and most of the Spitfire production line survived or was salvaged, together with the vital machine tools. After a visit by Lord Beaverbrook, the resolute Minister of Aircraft Production, came the order to disperse; whereupon the headquarters of die company, together with the design staff, were transferred to a stately country house at Hursley Park, near Winchester. Work shops were set up in various southern towns, and by 1944 Super-marines were established in 61 dispersals. All the time modifications and innovations were being intro duced to meet specific requirements; thus, when the Woolston works were bombed, a Spitfire I was being mounted on Blackburn Roc floats with a view to its employment in the Norwegian cam paign, though the collapse caused the scheme to be shelved. The Spitfire floatplane was, however, revived in 1942, and three Mk Vs (this time with specially designed floats) were formed into a sec tion and operated in die Mediterranean. A Mk III Spitfire was built, as a private venture, with a two-stage Merlin 20 and cropped wing-tips, and two Mk Is were modified at Farnborough for high-altitude photo reconnaissance. One of the most famous variants of all was the Mk V—first-string of Fighter Command in 1941 and 1942. Tropicalized ver sions of the V served extensively abroad and it was a Mk V which was first adapted to take a Rolls-Royce Griffon in 1941. This was originally called Spitfire IV, though the mark number was later changed to XX to avoid confusion with the P.R.FV. The Mk VI was a long-span high-altitude version of the Mk V, hastily improvised to tackle Ju 86P nuisance raiders, and it was, incidentally, the first British fighter to have a pressurized cockpit. An even higher-flyer was the Mk VII, with Merlin 61. The Mk VIII was virtually an unpressurized version of the VII and it appeared after, perhaps, the most successful Spitfire of all—the Mk IX. This was Britain's considered reply to the Fw 190 and 5,609 examples were built. The pressurized Mk X was a P.R. development of 1944—far less common, mis, than die Mk XI. As in the frozen heights so at "deck-level" did the "Spit" achieve supremacy. Thus, to counter low-flying tip-and-run fighter/ bombers a hundred strengthened Mk V airframes were fitted with Griffon III low-altitude engines, the resulting machines being designated Spitfire XII. For low-level photographic reconnais sance mere was the Mk XIII. When the Griffon became available in quantity the Spitfire XVIII was designed for that magnificent engine; so urgent was die need for such a fighter, however, that an interim type, the Mk XIV, was evolved. Mks XV and XVII did not materialize. The Mk XVI was a version of the IX with the American Packard-built Merlin. Over 1,000 were built at Casde Bromwich. The Mk XVIII resembled the XIV, but had strengthened wings and increased tankage, and the P.R XIX had "Bowser" wings and a. Universal camera installation. Last of the great line of war time Spitfires were the 21 and 22. They were distinguished by a wing of completely new design and of greater strength and area, and some examples had six-blade Rotol counter-rotating airscrews. There was no Spitfire 23 and the 24 was a strengthened 22. Should the more studious reader seek first-hand enlightenment regarding this evolutionary complex, he is commended to a paper delivered by_ Mr. J. Smith before the Royal Aeronautical Society on December 19th, 1946, and paraphrased in Flight a week later. Therein, too, he may trace the lineage of the Seafire, which was to the Fle=t Air Arm what the Spitfire was to the R.A.F. Briefly, this was the way of its development: The prototype Seafire was really a "hooked" Spitfire, but the production Mk I had catapult spools in addition. The Mk II was similar, though with two 20-mm guns and four .303in guns instead of the 8 X .303 armament; and the Mk III had folding
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