33k in the air
Staff Sergeant
- 1,354
- Jan 31, 2021
Yes, that was mentioned in the next paragraph in the book. I stopped at citing one paragraph for brevity's sake.
Spitfire Combat Radius (range) evolution, limitations?
- Thread starter IdahoRenegade
- Start date
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Yes, that was mentioned in the next paragraph in the book. I stopped at citing one paragraph for brevity's sake.
The MkV had a rear 30G tank designed for it plus 45G drop tanks, VIII had leading edge tanks plus drop tanks, the MkIX had 17G leading edge tanks plus 66 or 75G rear aux tanks plus drop tanks, the MkXIV could outfight everything the Luftwaffe had in the air with a 90G combat tank fitted and all MkXVI's had rear 75G tanks fitted from the factory, to say the Spit was not suitable for having it's fuel capacity increased is stupidity in the extreme.
GregP
Major
Nobody is saying it wasn't suitable. They are saying it didn't, which is pretty true until very late in the series.
Care to provide a link to the article?
Are you sure about that? On the thread about fighters for Australia etc. I posted info that it was not a production line mod, but carried out on some aircraft only at an MU level. Post #1222. Sorry can't post a direct link on this device.
Edit sorry it was the critical analysis of raf air superiority in far East thread.
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All MkXIV's had the rear tanks and like the Mustang in RAF service were wired shut in many cases so they couldn't be used
Which is even more baffling as the USAF was fitting ferry tanks to P47's in 1943 which only gave them an escort range of around 370 miles give or take when at the same time Spitfires could have gone to 450-500 miles. Why the RAF were so against adding fuel when the need for escort fighters was there is mind blowing.
wuzak
Captain
The USAAF needed escort fighters, the RAF, not so much.
Unless you wanted night-fighter Spitfires?
And, for a while, the USAAF weren't convinced they were needed.
The RAF had hundreds of Spitfires either sitting idle or doing pointless short range sweeps across the low countries, they could have been relaying with P47's escorting daylight bomber raids all the way to the German border. The Spit could have been filling the gap between the Jug and the P51 when it came into service.
They were.
And on the way out.
Only for the first and last leg, without a Luftwaffe aircraft in sight.
The USAF were using Jugs about to around 370 miles, the Luftwaffe new this so didn't engage until they turned back, the Spit could have stretched that coverage out to 450-500 miles making a worthwhile contribution to the daylight air war
Are you saying Spitfires could escort to Berlin?
Yes it has been mentioned/described numerous times on this board.
I remember reading an account of two Spitfires fending of a Fw 190 while escorting a B-17 straggler.
Take a Spit IX, the rear top 33G tank is burned off warming up/taxi/take off and have it sitting over the channel at 25,000ft, switch to the 90G drop tank and cruise out behind the P47's that are in front of you saving fuel, once the Jugs hit their limit and start to turn back the Spits increase speed and take over going as far as the 90G will take them which is around 500 miles, once they get there they still have around 175G of internal fuel to fight and get home. by using a relay system, P47's and Spitfires could have escorted the bomber stream out to around 500 miles if they mutually supported each other by the front groups clearing the sky enabling the rear groups to save fuel before they took over. Those same planes could have then been supported on the return leg so once again they can fly at economical speeds safely. Both aircraft could have then done likewise, the P47's actually did, to the P51 when they came into service and bridged the final gap in coverage.
Johnny Johnson mentioned numerous times in his writings of fly around empty skies and his squadron was elated when they finally got aux tanks in their MkXIV's and flew across the border into Germany for the first time.
