Beast of a Plane

[Art]

At the end of 1942 the Brits decided to go from the Rolls Royce Merlin engine to the Griffon engine for the Spitfire. The increase in performance was stunning. Its climb rate was especially spectacular, better than some early jets, it could outclimb a Mustang by more than 2,000 ft. min. The most used versions were the Model XIV which were all deployed forward in Europe after D Day to get at the Luftwaffe more easily. There is a rumor that several of these are buried in Burma.

Merlin engine Spits remained in service throughout the war but the XIV was absolutely the best of the wartime Spitfires, perhaps the best fighter of the war though its numbers didn't approach Mustang D or Thunderbolt D numbers

Engine: Rolls Royce supercharged Griffon V12 engine producing 2050 horsepower driving a 5 bladed paddle prop.
Speed: 441 mph at 29,500 feet, 391 mph at 5,000 feet
Rate of Climb: 5040 ft. min. 7 min. to 22,000 ft.
Ceiling: 43,500 ft.

The video is pretty good, nothing sounds quite like a high performance piston engine aircraft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz-EDVLlHJI

[barretcreek]

Thanks. Good video.

[Art]

Thanks. Good video.

You are welcome.

Note the clipped wings. Mk XIVs coming back from combat missions sometimes had wrinkles in their wings after high stress maneuvers. Clipping the wings solved the problem.