Herne Posted May 14, 2018 Posted May 14, 2018 Seems that the USA had a spit recon squadron. Colonel Blyth loved flying it. In the Q&A he does, he said he loved it so much, that he volunteered to stay beyond his tour of duty, just so that he could continue to fly it. Figured this may be worth a share :- 2 1 1
Poochnboo Posted May 15, 2018 Posted May 15, 2018 23 hours ago, =FEW=Herne said: Seems that the USA had a spit recon squadron. I have a day by day history of the 8th Air Force's 7th Photo Recon Group. There were three recon Lightning squadrons and one recon Spit squadron. They got the Spit Mk XI's early in '44 because of the high losses to the Lightning units. There was nothing that could catch them until the German had jets. The Spits were basically unarmed Mk 9's. The guns were removed and in their place the British placed fuel tanks in the leading edge of the wings. They ran from the wing root almost all the way to the wingtip. These Spitfires could fly all the way to Berlin and back. For extra speed they got rid of the flat bullet proof panel windscreen and replaced it with a streamlined piece of plexiglass. The nose is shaped a bit differently from stock Mk 9's because they installed a larger oil tank there. They also retracted the tailwheel. These guys flew very long, lonely missions all alone deep into Germany. Must have been pretty exciting, to say the least.
Herne Posted May 15, 2018 Author Posted May 15, 2018 Yes I did a little bit more digging into colonel Blyth and found this short documentary, which was really quite amazing. 2 1
MiloMorai Posted May 15, 2018 Posted May 15, 2018 (edited) Spitfire XI cutaway drawing Fuel: 228 gal + possible 90 gal o/ld tank Oil: 14.4 gal Edited May 15, 2018 by MiloMorai
Diggun Posted May 16, 2018 Posted May 16, 2018 All these fancy coloured Spitfires'll never catch on. Do love my pink one though.... 1 1
angus26 Posted May 16, 2018 Posted May 16, 2018 On 5/15/2018 at 10:23 AM, =FEW=Herne said: Yes I did a little bit more digging into colonel Blyth and found this short documentary, which was really quite amazing. Really enjoyed this when I saw it a while back. A very interesting story!
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now