This Spitfire was a BEAST

[craigcooknf]

Going at over 720 km/h in a plane with 2000 HP, with an air frame wrapped around huge machine guns, all covered in thin sheet metal and doped fabric. INTO DANGER. Sitting behind an engine 2/3 the weight of an average modern car. Just absolutely incredible.

[petercastles]

The original test pilot for the spits said in his book that of all the marks this type was his favourite. The Brass had organised a race between the Typhoon, Folke Wulf, and ok we will throw in a Spit to look good. The Typhoon was supposed to win it, but they had no idea about the Griffon. Spit won, Typhoon second, and FW had engine trouble. Red faces all round.

[amos]

As one veteran described it, "You don't sit in a Spit. You just strap on your wings and go flying. No other aircraft had felt that way".

[keesvandenbroek]

So to speak: the Mk1 was an airplane with an engine in it? And the Mk14 an engine with an airplane wrapped around it?

[kc]

I think I read somewhere that the main reason the Griffon-engine planes stopped accelerating at 450mph is because the prop tips were getting into the transonic region, which caused buffeting and vibrations. If they pushed any higher the prop blades could be damaged by shock waves.

[voodoosurvivor]

Favorite planes of WW2: the Spitfire in Europe and the Corsair in the Pacific. Beautiful aircraft.

[t]

It's amazing how fast the RAF, engineers, and assembly workers moved through upgrades and new designs to the Spitfire, Hurricane, and Mosquito.

[iskandartaib]

There's a Mark XIV at the Royal Thai Air Force Museum near Don Mueang in Bangkok. it's on display in the open, you can walk up to it and fondle it. You can see the prop blades are made of wood. Like the one in this video it's got the cut-down turtledeck and the bubble canopy. It's got the two oblique camera ports behind the pilot, which makes it a FR XIV. Unlike the one in the video, it's got two 20mm cannon mounted in the outboard of the two cannon bays, and two .50 cal machine guns in the inboard bays (the one in the video has the cannon mounted in the inboard bays, with the outboard bays blanked off, and I'd assume, four .303 machine guns in the outboard wing bays).

[aSpyIntheHaus]

An absolute beast of a gem all rolled into such a beautiful airframe.

[michaelagnew]

These late model Spitfires, along with Bearcats, Tigercats and Ta-52s, are some of the most interesting airframes of the war.

[recoilrob]

The last of the 'Super Prop' airplanes from WWII are interesting to see the absolute maturity of one propulsion method and how jets were a 'Quantum Leap' allowing much higher speeds than ANY amount of horsepower could give you behind a prop.

[robertbruce]

I like the host, he has a no nonsense way of putting the information across.

[avtore]

I just bought a Rolls Royce Griffin last week from an estate sale for $10, 500. It was a surplus engine still in crate and books

[Onefortheroad]

450 mph was the p-51s top speed with a Merlin. Now imagine what it could do with a griffin engine

Edit: for those saying the mustang airframe wasn’t capable of higher speeds, the p-51 voodoo is the fastest piston plane in the world with a top speed of 550 mph so it was more than capable of higher speeds

[AndrewRushton-xf]

BEAUTIFUL!! Thanks for this. I know a lot of people love the Spitfire, but, for me, there has or never has been any propellor driven aircraft to equal or attempt to beat this gorgeous looking and sounding aeroplane.

[rickbear]

We used to sit on the almost abandoned former Gate Guardian version on one of these opposite RAF Sealand. As kids, we'd daydream the impossible dream of restoring it to flight. Yup, it was the impossible dream of aviation enthusiast kids — except that it has now been restored and returned to flight these many years late ❤

[robertheuer]

absolutely love planes...dont know alot about most but know so.e on the ones i really like❤

[curly]

The Spit had a wonderful gestation, having begun in 1936 with a two-bladed wooden prop, and driven by a 990hp RR Merlin, and attaining 342mph.

[davidlee]

What an aircraft! Just saw one at Farnborough airshow. Magnificent!

[fuzzjunky]

all that torque, it suffered in the same way the corsair and hellcats did. it was a complete tart to land, and any sudden burst of throttle would twist the whole plane