Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: alpini13 on January 23, 2011, 12:12:22 PM
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The Supermarine Spitfire was fitted with a series of different wings during its service career. The type of wing generally indicated the armament of the fighter, or the range of guns that a particular aircraft could carry, and was combined with the Mk number to produce a full designation Mk IIb or Mk Vc.
In each case the number of guns indicates the total for the fighter, not the total per wing.
a wing
The Spitfire I was originally armed with eight .303in Browning machine guns, each with 300 rounds. This type of wing was officially designated as the a wing on 15 March 1940, to distinguish between machine gun armed Spitfires and cannon armed aircraft. The vast majority of Spitfires in use during the battle of Britain were armed with machine guns.
b wing
The eight .303in machine guns of the Mk I Spitfire had given it a great deal of punch when it was designed, but when the Germans began to add armour to their bombers the machine guns were found somewhat lacking. Accordingly experiments were made with the use of 20mm Hispano cannon.
This gave it a great deal of punch when it was developed, but when the Germans began to add armour to their bombers, the rifle calibre machine guns lost some of their effectiveness.
The response was to fit the Spitfire with the 20mm Hispano cannon. This poses a variety of problems, not least of which was the size of the cannon. The only way to fit it in the Spitfire wing was to mount it on its side. A second problem was that the early cannons were prone to jam under the pressure of combat. If one cannon jammed, the recoil from the other one was enough to push the Spitfire off course.
The b wing entered service during 1940. No.19 Squadron used it during the battle of Britain, but the cannons were still causing problems. Finally in November 1940 No.92 Squadron was given Spitfires equipped with two 20mm cannon and four 0.303in machine guns. This proved to be a much more effective combination of weapons, and became the standard for the b wing.
c wing
Spitfire F.Mk IX with "c" wing The c wing appeared in October 1941. It was a universal wing that could take eight .303in machine guns, four 20mm cannon or two 20mm cannon and four machine guns. Each cannon now had 120 rounds, compared to the 60 of the b wing. This wing was used on the majority of Mk V Spitfires, normally with the combined cannon and machine guns configuration. The c wing also had the capability to carry two 250lb bombs under the wings, or one 500lb bomb under the fuselage. If machine guns were used, they were used in the outboard position. The a and b wings were not used after the Spitfire V.
d wing
This was a wing used on some photo reconnaissance Spitfires. Instead of guns this wing carried extra fuel, giving the reconnaissance aircraft a range of up to 2000 miles.
e wing
The e wing was a further development of the Universal. It could carry either four 20mm cannon or two 20mm cannon and two 0.5in Browning machine guns. This time the cannon took the outer position and the machine guns the inner. This was partly because it gave more room for machine gun ammunition and partly because the bombs were carried below the inner gun positions, and there had been some problems reported when both cannon and bombs were on the same part of the wing. The e wing appeared in the second half of 1944.
Mk 21/24 wing
The wing used in the Mk 21 Spitfire was significantly redesigned. The leading edge lost its curve, running straight out to the guns. Armament was standardised at four 20mm Hispano Mk II cannon, with 175 rounds for the inboard gun and 150 for the outboard gun. In official documents this
even
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would like to see more wing options for spits if the above info is accurate.
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While the spit is a great plane, I think we have enough of them for now.
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And we have a Spit with the A wing. The Spifire I. We have a Spitfire with the B Wing. The Spitfire Vb. We have three with the Universal or C Wing. The Seafire II, Spit VIII and the IX and 2 with the E Wing. Spitfire XVI and XIV.
Think it's been covered well. There were many different recce wings but we don't use Recce Spits so no point
Not sure why you are asking for something we already have?
And yeah I'm a Spitfire fan
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I requested the Spitfire Mark Va a while ago:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,300308.msg3846500.html#msg3846500
Thought it would be interesting and representative to have a slightly better Spitfire than the Mark I, still on eight 303s.
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gee,i dont remember seeing a spit in the hanger with 4 x 20mm... maybe i missed it
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I knew this was going there
gee,i dont remember seeing a spit in the hanger with 4 x 20mm... maybe i missed it
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gee,i dont remember seeing a spit in the hanger with 4 x 20mm... maybe i missed it
the universal C wing could be fitted with 8 .303s, 4 20mms, or 4 .303s and 2 20mms... :rolleyes:
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gee,i dont remember seeing a spit in the hanger with 4 x 20mm... maybe i missed it
LOL you gotta be trolling. Outside of a Spit 21 you really aren't going to see a 4 cannon Spit in AH. And since the 21 never took a shot at another airplane in WW2 it would seem silly to add it.
If you aren't trolling, I'm getting kinda worried.
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alpini,
just think about it. What if we get a spit8 with 4*hispanos.
It still would be able to turn like a spit16, climb like a beast, and reach 335mph at sea level. So totally own a n1k2 in every situation. It would be heavily perked, im almost sure, and totally dominate the MAs.
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gee,i dont remember seeing a spit in the hanger with 4 x 20mm... maybe i missed it
You should have been open about your agenda in the first place.
You didn't see Spitfires with four 20mm cannons in the hangars in WWII either. The exceptions were a squadron of ground attack Mk Vs and a single Spitfire Mk VIII that the squadron commander had armed thus for intercepting Ki-46 recon planes.
Neither should be in AH for obvious reasons.
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Yep lets have more Spitfires please, (after all it did win the war and battle of Britain single handed)
Wing options like a clipped Mk 5 and 14,
new versions such as the Spit mk 2, 12 and the 21
naval Seafire mkIII and don't forget the sea Hurri!
No quad 20's though sorry.
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the universal C wing could be fitted with 8 .303s, 4 20mms, or 4 .303s and 2 20mms... :rolleyes:
Yes... But of those options it was only really ever fitted with one option.
Unless you have any photographic evidence of 1943-1945 Spitfires with 8x.303 wings?
surely that MUST be the topic of this discussion, no? Because the quad hizzo request has been debunked ad nauseum for so many years, I can't imagine somebody bringing it up again.... right?
:noid
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quite a few MKVIII squadrons would swap 1/2 of the flight to the 4 20mm options a day before they were going on ground attack missions the other half keeping the 2 20mm 4 303 as top cover . then change back ready for a mission a day or so later . took 4-6 hours to swap over load outs (not including loading ammo) so as long as they had time to plan they would swap over ready . Most pilot s would realise what the next day had in store when they saw the ground crew looking miffed as the WC would give them a sheet of paper with the next days requirements were.
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Yep lets have more Spitfires please
but then more 109s too... i could list several missing subtypes : )
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gee,i dont remember seeing a spit in the hanger with 4 x 20mm... maybe i missed it
No, what you missed was a clue.
ack-ack
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quite a few MKVIII squadrons would swap 1/2 of the flight to the 4 20mm options a day before they were going on ground attack missions the other half keeping the 2 20mm 4 303 as top cover . then change back ready for a mission a day or so later . took 4-6 hours to swap over load outs (not including loading ammo) so as long as they had time to plan they would swap over ready . Most pilot s would realise what the next day had in store when they saw the ground crew looking miffed as the WC would give them a sheet of paper with the next days requirements were.
please show me a photo or some reference to this somewhere...anywhere. I've never seen it in 30+ years of Spitfire research. I'm not saying you are wrong, as there is always a chance I've missed it, but I would really like to see some actual documentation of this somewhere.
Just because in theory it was possible, didn't mean it happened. Name the 'quite a few" squadrons please so I can do my own research through my Spit stuff.
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my mates got my book . It wasn't always done but the NZ and Australians seemed to like doing it especially later in the war over Burma when there were less IJA flights . Biggest problem is that cos only a select few of the flight were kitted out this way you can't say it was squadron strength . One pilot talked about the two right guns jamming on him while strafing a AA gun and skidding .
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my mates got my book . It wasn't always done but the NZ and Australians seemed to like doing it especially later in the war over Burma when there were less IJA flights . Biggest problem is that cos only a select few of the flight were kitted out this way you can't say it was squadron strength . One pilot talked about the two right guns jamming on him while strafing a AA gun and skidding .
Do check which squadrons for me will you? What book was it?
It went from many squadrons now to maybe some in the CBI. The Aussies weren't there but alongside the 5th AF guys in the Pacific and I've yet to see any photos beyond one that showed a 4 cannon VIII that was supposedly for chasing high alt Japanese recce birds. It's the only photo of a VIII that shows up with 4 cannons, repeatedly. Same image.
I don't know that the New Zealanders had any Spit Squadrons in the CBI.
If it's accurate, it still speaks to ground strafing as the reason for the 4 cannon Spit Vcs flown by the South African squadron. It was not for air to air.