Just thinking about the Spitfire and it's great importance to us, the Mk1 which was the version used throughout the
Battle of Britain. As stated before fuel consumption was around 150 gallons per hour.
That early Mark had a range of only 395 miles, which included take-off and 15 minutes of combat. It's closest rival, the Luftwaffe ME109E had a range of 415 miles, including combat time. The great advantage for the RAF was the Home Chain Radar system, that could direct the Spitfires, and Hurricane's, directly onto the enemy bomber formations, and thus not waste precious air time trying to locate them. Their other big advantage was of course was fighting over England, so limiting their flying time to the enemy anyway.
The pilots of the ME109E did not have those advantages, and especially the fact that they had to fly across the Channel from their air bases in France before entering combat. This fact was made even more acute when German High Command ordered the bombers to go to London and the other cities of England, with the fighters keeping in close support, from September 7th 1940. The pilots of the ME109E's had further to go on their limited fuel capacity, and thus had a greatly reduced combat time to fend off the RAF.
Fuel capacity and the range of the aircraft was thus of crucial importance during the Battle. As was the fact that Luftwaffe air crew were being totally lost to the German war effort when their planes were brought down, as even if they escaped their fatally damaged planes, they parachuted into the arms of British security forces.
These aircraft that lie in Burma certainly come with a fantastic pedigree and history, thus being worth a fortune. What a beautiful plane, and these will be apparently MkX1V's.
What a great memorial to "The Few". The prospect of 65-95 Spitfires flying in formation together over London
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Topic: Anyone want a Spitfire? (Read 2706 times)