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- #721
cheddar cheese
Major General
Ah, looks like the Mk.XXII. was the last wartime varient then.
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March 1944 saw the prototype Mk XXI take to the air with a Griffon 61 engine. It was capable of giving over 2,000 hp and the aircraft was taken on as a high altitude air superiority fighter with a forecasted speed of over 470 mph. Sadly the prototype could only reach 450 mph and so the aircraft proved to be a disappointment. At the end of World War Two only 120 Mk XXI Spitfires had been built, all with the return of the older style cockpit and canopy.
From January 1946 four RAF squadrons operated the Mk XXIs, the last example being retired from service in August 1947. At this time the Air Ministry declared that as from the Mk XX, all Spitfire marks would change from roman numerals to arabic and so the Mk XXI became the Mk 21.
Between March 1945 and February 1946 a batch of F Mk 22 Spitfires were delivered to the RAF. The F.22 saw the return, again, of the "tear drop" canopy, but it was virtually the same aircraft as the F Mk 21. The new Mk 22 had severe vibration problems and a much modified tail fin was introduced. Many Mk 22 Spitfires were used by the Auxiliary Air Force but were phased out and replaced by the new Vampire and Meteor jet fighters.
In early 1944 Supermarine and the RAE at Farnborough were discussing incorporating the revised high speed wing with the "Super Spitfire". The prototype F Mk 21, PP139, was used to test the wing and the aircraft was named the prototype F Mk 23 Spitfire. However the aircraft was also called the "Valient". This aircraft was another failure for Supermarine and so work started on the Spitfire F Mk 24, the last Mk of Spitfire to be built.
This last Spitfire was a fully fledged ground attack aircraft that used the short barrelled Hispano Mk 5 guns. First delivery of the F.24 took place at South Marston on the 13th April 1946. Only 80 Squadron, based in Germany, operated the F.24 and took them with them to Hong Kong. They remained at Kai-Tak airport, Hong Kong from July 1949 to January 1952. It is said in Hong Kong that the Spitfires remained there and were bulldozed into the sea when the runway was lengthened by reclaiming land from the sea.
On the 20th February 1948, almost twelve years from the prototype's first flight, the last production Spitfire, VN496, an F Mk 24, left the production line. Some 22,500 Spitfires were built and now only a few dozen are kept in flying condition.
http://www.spitfiresociety.demon.co.uk/spitdev.htm