MAQUETTE À MONTER - Spitfire Mk.Vb 'Malta Island' Hasegawa | No. 09405 | 1:48

Characteristics

Description

The Spitfire, which fought throughout the Second World War on all fronts, has long been widely regarded as a true masterpiece of fighter aircraft design. The origins of the Spitfire are to be found in a British Air Ministry order to the Supermarine company in 1934 for a new fighter, given the alphanumeric designation F.7/34, that would mount a standard armament of eight 7.7mm machine guns. The resultant design was a true thoroughbred: it was fitted with Rolls-Royce's new liquid-cooled Merlin C engine, and the prototype made its maiden flight on March 5, 1936. Convinced of the strength and high capability of the design, the Air Ministry immediately placed orders for the design to be put into production, mounted with the Merlin II engine and designated the Mk.I.

The wisdom of the Air Ministry's decision to go ahead with full-scale production was proven just a few years later when the Spitfire, fighting valiantly alongside the Hawker Hurricane, was probably the single most decisive factor in securing a British victory in the Battle of Britain. In 1941, keeping ahead of developments and improvements upon the excellent German Bf109F design, the British met the Nazi challenge with the Mk.V, which improved upon the already superlative performance of the Spitfire Mk.I. 

The Mk.V line was divided into three main types depending on the configuration of the main armament loaded, with the Mk.Va armed with eight 7.7mm machine guns, the Mk.Vb armed with two 20mm cannons and four 7.7mm machine guns, and the Mk.Vc, known as the "universal type", which was armed with the loadout configurations of either the Va or Vb models, or else with four 20mm cannons.

The Mk.V was mounted with four different Merlin engines to produce its production run, namely, the Merlin 45, 45M, 46, 50, 50A, 50M, 55, 55M or 56. Perhaps the most famous Mk.V design featured a Merlin 45M powerplant, a special air intake filter for tropical operations and blunt oil squared oil radiator which improved the design's performance at lower altitudes. This Mk.V was the most widely produced Spitfire mark at 6,500 aircraft by September 1942, comprising over 30% of the overall Spitfire production total of 22,000. Besides service with the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the Spitfire also served with squadrons in the U.S. Eighth and 9th AF, as well as with the air forces of Turkey, Egypt, post-war Italy and Portugal, among others. Interestingly, large numbers of well-star-emblazoned Mk.V aircraft were also leased to the Soviet Air Force under Lend Lease.

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