General

The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter aircraft, used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries during the Second World War and into the 1950s. It was produced in greater numbers than any other Allied design. The Spitfire was the only Allied fighter in production at the outbreak of the Second World War that was still in production at the end of the war.

Produced by the Supermarine subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs, the Spitfire was designed by the company's Chief Designer R. J. Mitchell, who continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937. The position of chief designer was then filled by his colleague, Joseph Smith. Its elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than the Hawker Hurricane and many other contemporary designs.

The distinctive silhouette imparted by the wing planform helped the Spitfire to achieve legendary status during the Battle of Britain. There was, and still is, a public perception that it was the RAF fighter of the Battle, in spite of the fact that the more numerous Hurricane shouldered a great deal of the burden against the potent Luftwaffe. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service throughout the whole of the Second World War, in most theatres of war, in several roles and in many different variants. The Spitfire was to continue to serve as a front line fighter and in secondary roles for several air forces well into the 1950s.

The Spitfire will always be compared to its main adversary, the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Both were among the finest fighters of their day and followed similar design philosophies of marrying a small, streamlined airframe to a powerful liquid-cooled inline engine.

Characteristics

In service with 349 squadron

Spitfire service within 349 squadron started quite early. After the squadron moved to RAF Wittering, they were equipped with the Mk. F VA. This featured eight 0.303 inch Browning machine guns. The squadron only flew one month with this subversion, soon being replaced by the Mk. F VB. This featured only four Brownings and added another two powerfull 0.50 inch Hispano cannons. Missions over France were conducted with this version of the Spitfire at a growing pace. In February of 1944 the Mk. LF IXE was introduced, creating a leap in performance. This sub-type introduced a Merlin 66 engine with a four-blade propeller increasing top speed to 656 km/h - in comparison with 534 km/h of its predecessor, rate of climb and high altitude performance, countering the German Fw-190 in that department. The four Brownings machine guns were replaced by two 0.50 inch Browning cannons.

In February of 1945 it was decided to re-equip the squadron, but this seemed a wrong move. The squadron already reconverted to the Mk. LF IXB in April, being ready to move to mainland Europe for the final battle of WWII. After the armistice, the squadron received the new Mk. LF XVIB version, which was a copy of the Mk. LF IXE with an American build Merlin M266 engine. This version was used until after the return to Belgium in 1946. However, these aircraft had to be returned to the RAF, but the Belgian Air Force received the preferred Mk. F XIVE type in March of 1947. This type featured a Griffon 66 engine driving a five-blade propeller increasing performance even more to a maximum speed of 706 km/h.