Royal Air Force fighter aircraft, maximum speed for
mark I Supermarine Spitfire, 362mph up to The Seafire 47 with a top speed
of 452mph. maximum ceiling for Mk I 34,000feet up to 44,500 for the mark
XIV. Maximum range for MK I 575 miles . up to 1475 miles for
the Seafire 47. Armament for the various Marks of Spitfire. for MK I, and
II . eight fixed .303 browning Machine guns, for MK's V-IX and XVI two
20mm Hispano cannons and four .303 browning machine guns. and on later
Marks, six to eight Rockets under the wings or a maximum bomb load of
1,000 lbs.
Designed by R J Mitchell, The proto type Spitfire first
flew on the 5th March 1936. and entered service with the Royal Air Force
in August 1938, with 19 squadron based and RAF Duxford. by the outbreak of
World war two, there were twelve squadrons with a total of 187 spitfires,
with another 83 in store. Between 1939 and 1945, a large variety of
modifications and developments produced a variety of MKs from I to XVI.
The mark II came into service in late 1940, and in March 1941, the MkV
came into service. To counter the Improvements in fighters of the
Luftwaffe especially the FW190, the MKXII was introduced with its Griffin
engine. The Fleet Air Arm used the Mk,I and II and were named
Seafires.
By the end of production in 1948 a total of 20,351
spitfires had been made and 2408 Seafires. The most produced variant
was the Spitfire Mark V, with a total of 6479 spitfires produced.
The Royal Air Force kept Spitfires in front line use until April 1954.
