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Thanks for posting that video. I liked it.
Nice post...thanks!
David
That's a great film, too bad there aren't more from back then.
The plane is a Mk XI, photo recon version. Notice the deeper cowling bottom under the engine, that houses an extra large oil tank for long missions.
Spits in general had one limit on performance and that was range since they usually don't carry much fuel. The very first ones had only 96 U S gal internal in 2 tanks in front of the pilot.
It was designed as an interceptor and dogfighter and had few equals at this, but didn't have the fuel of a Mustang. By mid war they had a fuselage tank behind the pilot so 156 gal total and decent range, but still not like a Mustang. They did have good dropable external belly tanks, from about 30 gal all the way up to 170 gal.
The Mk XI carried extra fuel in the wings in place of guns and was fast, 422 mph and could go to 44,000 feet, so at the Brits put it, "Attack from above and astern was unlikely." A special model of Spit got to 50,000 in a test.
The M E 262 jet had a 100 mph top speed on them, but could not get about 36,000.
I met a W W II vet pilot once who told me of going to film Berlin at 36,000 feet, about 5 hours round trip and cold as the dickens, despite electric heated gloves.
Spits were great photo recon planes, and took some of the most important pictures of the war, like the German battleships Bismark, Tirpitz, etc.
After the war a recon Spitfire was flown across the South Pacific from the Canary Islands to South America. Great as a Merlin is, that is a very long and wet way to cross in a single engine plane, especially as a Spit, like all the fighteres with a scoop on the bottom are known to be very poor at ditching in water.
I believe Bob Hoover was flying a Spitfire when he was shot down.
When the Brits gave the USAAF Spitfires, it was sometimes nicknamed: "Reverse Lend-Lease."