Nothing to do with performance, nothing to do with firepower simply as the thread said my favourite Spitfire Vb - three blade prop, nice tidy Merlin and no pointy fin.
Bit of an old thread, but it was Spitfire (with floats)!
Sorry, but once 'they' b*ggered about with folding wings for the navy boys, and especially the contra-rotating prop, it made a beautiful swan into a not that effective ugly duckling!
Oh well, guess the difference of looks is fair enough, but was the seafire really a poorer performer than those land-based spitfres of the same period? (Don't roll your eyes if this is a stupid question - I specialise in some of the Soviet planes of the time)
Spit VIII for me. Range deficiency for the general Spifire series made its choice as Best Fighter more difficult when considering total air superiority versus spendid interceptor...
I would like to have seen more VIII's engaged with early 8th AF missions in the escort role.
Too bad RAF USAAF did not tried a long-range fighter sweep (to just behind Ruhr?), with some 300 Spitfires VIII and 150 P-38s, with another 500 fighters (and the same number of medium bombers) flying vs. airports in Low countries France. Say, 7 days trial, 'proof of a concept', staged to end at the beginning of invasion of Sicily? Now lets toss in 200 B-17s to use up the commotion...
I take it heads would've rolled in Luftwaffe, both figuratively and litterarly.