Originally posted by Krusty
A flawed design if ever there was one lol.
Re: Spit21...
They only ordered 50 spit22s on March 45. I doubt they'd get into production too fast, nor that they'd see any action by the end of the war. Also note this contract was cancelled August 1945. Not sure how many made it before the cancellation.
They ordered 150 more in Nov '45. Far too late.
EDIT: Ahh wait, found more info. There were earlier orders for Mk 21s
700 Mk21s were ordered Jan 1944. Were cancelled August '44. Reinstated for 40 Spit9s (am guessing they used the partial airframes?)
800 ordered for Feb 1944. Contract cancelled August 1944. Partially re-instated for 558 Spitfire Mk IX. Seems the airframes ended up being Spit9s and Spi16s. Guess nobody wanted Spit21s.
So those spit21s were ordered but few made it.
Trust me Krusty, I wouldn't have said they made it into combat if they hadn't
Part of my focus when I was researching the Spit XII was 91 Squadron. Some of the guys who flew XIIs were still with the squadron when they transitioned to the 21 BEFORE the war ended. They were flying patrols over Holland etc. Lost two to flak and claimed the sinking of a midget sub in their time.
I made no claim it was in great numbers, but then again neither was the TA152. And I wasn't really suggesting we get one for AH
We'd be far better off with an accurately modeled Spit LFIXe
Image is of a 91 Squadron Spitfire 21 from a photo given to me by one of those 91 pilots who flew it on ops
Dan/CorkyJr