I never knew

[:FI:WillieOFS]

that they made this variant..

The Mark XI was essentially a Mark IX Spitfire interceptor modified for photographic reconnaissance with cameras, a more powerful engine and a larger oil tank in the nose. All guns and armor were removed and the fuel capacity was greatly increased; speed was the unarmed Mark XI's defense. A total of 471 Mark XIs were built between April 1943 and January 1946. Great Britain and its allies flew various photo-reconnaissance versions of the Spitfire with great success in all theaters during World War II.

My wife gave me a lovely book about Spitfires for Christmas. LOTS of pictures and info form the guys that flew 'em "back in the day". Learned something new.

Funny looking beast with that fat chin.

[:FI:IceFrog]

“unarmed” you got have some balls to fly that in war
howfast was it?

[:FI:WillieOFS]

The early PR Mk's A to C were based on the original Mk1 airframe, the Mk1a fighter had a max speed of 367 mph

PR MkD (later called PRIV) used the Merlin 45 engine that was fitted to the MkV fighter and had a top speed of 372 mph

PR VII again used a Merlin 45 but had a speed of 368 mph

PR X - Merlin 64 or 77 top speed 416 mph

PR XI - used a number of engines Merlin 61,63,63A or 70 - top speed 442 mph

PR XIII - used the Merlin 32 which gave a top speed of 348 mph

PRXIX - used a Griffon 66 which gave a speed of 445 mph at 26,000 ft.

The guys flew alone and tried to take their pictures from 30,000 ft.

They said flak was their biggest problem until the 262's became operational. However, since the 262 was short legged they figured they could out maneuver them until the 262 had to go home.

I think that the one pictured is the only flyable PR-XI on the planet. There was another but according to what I've read, the pilot totalled it in the early 2001 and killed himself in the process at an airshow in France. He was in the process of landing and there were people on the grass strip, so he tried to go around and the engine quit. Later they found that one mag was barely making spark and the other was making no spark.
http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/cms_resource ... 021698.pdf

[:FI:Airway]

I once sat in a Spitfire Mark XIV in the Luftfahrtmuseum Hannover-Laatzen.
It's the only Spit XIV in a German museum.

http://www.luftfahrtmuseum-hannover.de/spitfire

Recommended to visit.

Flight tickets are cheap right now .
* München (16.01.2009) - New York (22.01.2009) - München = 200,81€
* Frankfurt (14.01.2009) - New York (22.01.2009) - Frankfurt = 213,67€
* Frankfurt (13.01.2009) - Los Angeles (22.01.2009) - Frankfurt = 330,61€

[:FI:WillieOFS]

That museum looks to have some very nice displays.

That Griffon powered MK XIV was a hairy chested monster according to the guys that flew them. They told of really surprising the LW pilots. Apparently, before the advent of that plane the LW would attack form above. The Previous Spitfire Marks were unable to attack from below. When the MK XIV arrived, the Spitfire pilots found it very easy to throttle up, pull the stick back and climb into the attack. They also said it was least the least "user friendly" Spitfire to fly due to the huge amount of torque that big engine generated as well as the prop turning backwards compared to the Merlins.

[:FI:Airway]

And compared to a Fw-190 or Bf-109 there is really a "lot of space" inside the Spit cockpit where bold ones like me look like "shot into it with high pressure"

But I don't know if they didn't need that space because of the strange usage of the flightcontrol stick.
Shorrt lever might have made the pilot tired in long dogfights.