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Supermarine Spitfire XVIE

The Supermarine Spitfire is the classic British fighter. Not least of it's achievments being that it remained at the cutting edge of fighter development for about ten years until it was superseded by the new breed of jet fighter. Designed by Reginald Mitchell and utilising the new Rolls Royce PV12 engine, (later called the Merlin) the new fighter was the state of the art fighter plane of it's day. The stucture was all metal stressed skin with an elliptical wing which provided an efficiently thin section with a broad chord to house the retracting undercarriage, guns and other bits of equipment. The Spitfires first flight was on March 5th 1936 at Eastleigh flown by Captain J. "Mutt" Summers and in July of that year Supermarines recieved the first order for 310 production aircraft. R.J. Mitchell only lived long enough to see the prototype fly, dying of cancer in July 1937, his position of chief designer being taken by Joe Smith. The first production Spitfire 1a's began emerging from the Woolston production line in June 1938 and the first delivery to 19 Squadron at Duxford later that year. After the start of World War Two Spitfire strength was built up so that by the start of the Battle of Britain there were 19 Spitfire squadrons, and 29 Hawker Hurricane squadrons. After the Battle of Britain the Spitfire began to assume a dominant position in Fighter Command.

The next version of the Spitfire to enter service in 1940 was the Spitfire II which was powered by the more powerful Merlin XII of 1,175 Hp. By 1941 the RAF had gone over to the offensive with fighter sweeps over the French channel coast. The year of 1941 saw the introduction of the Spitfire V which was powered by the 1,440 hp Merlin 45 and was typically armed with two cannon and four machine guns. The Spitfire V was built in larger numbers than any variant of the Spitfire with the exception of the MkIX/XVI and spawned a multitude of subvariants. These included the first navalised variant of the Spitfire, which was named the Seafire MK1 and featured an A-Frame arrestor hook. Many Spitfire V's were tropicalised using the large and ugly Vokes tropical filter and served in the western desert. Malta and the Far East. Upon entry into service the Spitfire V was superior to it's main enemy the the Messerschmitt 109E and a match for the Messerschmitt 109F. The introduction of the Focke Wulf 190A by the Luftwaffe was a bitter shock to the RAF, being superior in most respects to the Spitfire V and quickly establishing a 2:1 kill ratio over the Spitfire. As a short term measure many Spitfires had their wings clipped in order to increase the roll rate and general low level performance.

Although a large increase in performance was expected from the more sophisticated Spitfire VIII, better performance was required immediately to regain air superiority. The solution was the marriage of the new Rolls Royce Merlin 60 series engine, (already earmarked for the Mk VIII) with the Mk V airframe. This hurried adaptation named the Spitfire IX was to become the version of the Spitfire built in largest numbers, (the Spitfire XVI was identical but had American Packard built Merlins as the powerplant). The increase in power from the Merlin 60 with two stage supercharger transformed the Spitfire's performance, increasing the climb performance and pushing the top speed over 400 mph. With the Rolls Royce Merlin 60 series engine being built under license in America by Packard an important subvariant of the Spitfire IX was introduced using this engine and was designated as the Spitfire XVI although in every other respect it was identical to the Spitfire IX. Later production variants of both the Spitfire IX and Spitfire XVI had a cut down rear fuselage and bubble canopy.

The definitive Merlin engined Spitfire was the Spitfire VIII which was designed from the outset to take the Merlin 61 and featured several structural refinements and a retractable tailwheel. Most importantly was the inclusion of an integral tropical air filter which meant that the Spitfire VIII served extensively in the near and far east.

In addition to it's fighter duties a very important role for the Spitfire was that of photographic reconnaissance. The most important Merlin engined PR variant was the Spitfire PR XI which was based on the Spitfire VIII. It featured typically three camera's, two in vertically mounted and one obliquely. The Spitfire PRXI also featured the so called "Wet Wing" and was capable of flying extremely long distances.

For some years it had been thought impossible to mount the very powerful Rolls Royce Griffon in the Spitfire due to it's size. However the relocation of the camshaft and supercharger gear drives to the front of the engine reduced it's size considerably. Research by Rolls Royce and Supermarines proved that the Spitfire airframe was capable of accomodating the Griffon. The length of the Spitfire was increased by two feet and had a very different shape due to the lower thrust line of the Griffon and a much larger spinner. The greater depth of the engine resulted in fairings over the cylinder blocks which broke the smooth shape of the nose contours.

The first Griffon engined Spitfire was the Spitfire XII. This was something of a hybrid bridging the gap between the first and second generation Spitfire's and was rushed into production to counter the menace of low flying FW190A hit and run raiders. Utilising initially Spitfire V and later Spitfire VIII airframes the Spitfire XII was optimised for low level work and most featured clipped wings. The engine chosen was the single stage supercharged Rolls Royce Griffon II. Only 100 were built due to the specialised nature of the combat they were required for.

The most important Griffon engined variant of the Spitfire was the Spitfire XIV which was based on the Spitfire VIII airframe and the Griffon 61 featuring the two speed two stage supercharger which delivered over 2000 HP. The Spitfire XIV represented a huge increase in performance over the Merlin engined Spitfire and was the most important Spitfire variant during the last eighteen months of WW2. The Spitfire XIV spawned the Spitfire PRXIX, which was the PR version utilising the "wet wing" , pressurised cabin and full compliment of camera's.

Performance

A top speed of 408 mph at 25,500 ft.
Weight: 7,500 lb's Fully loaded.
Powerplant: One Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin 61 liquid cooled V12 engine of 1,566 HP with two speed, two stage supercharger.
Armament: Two 20mm Hispano cannons and four 0.303" machine guns mounted in the wings