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Thread: 20 Brand New Unused Spitfires Discovered in Burma

  1. #11
    Does anyone know what weopons the Spitfire carry? It would be nice if they could all fly.

  2. #12
    steveinindy's Avatar
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    If I recall correctly, the standard practice before mothballing aircraft was to strip them of their weapons since the guns do better if stored separately.
    Unfortunately in science what you believe is irrelevant.

    "I'm an old-fashioned Southern Gentleman. Which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-***** when I want to be."- Robert A. Heinlein.



  3. #13

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    Spitfire weapons guns vary with model. The early ones had 8 rifle cal .303 machine guns, light compact, very reliable and fast firing, but not much hitting power, especially against armor plate.
    Cannons were tried, longer range,, very hard hitting, especially destructive with exploding shells, but they were heavy and had inital jamming problems.
    By mid war, the MK IX had a very good combo of 2 20mm Hispano cannons, and 4 Browning .303 machine guns.
    Mk XVIs had 2 cannons and 2 .50 cal heavy machine gun, and after some initial jamming problems the 50 was a good gun, but much heavier than the .303.
    The Mk XIV which is likely the ones buried probably had the 2 cannon and 4 .303s.
    Some later models had 4 cannons which pretty much destroyed anything hit, but of course was heavier.
    As an experiment they tried one plane shooting at targets with all the guns, 2 cannons, 2 .50 cal and 4 . 303 which as the report stated was overkill as it tended to vaporize anything hit, and of course was way too heavy to be practical.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 04-27-2012 at 05:00 PM.

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