Some Spitfire advice please!

Surely not as good as the one in my avatar 😮

😉

Calm down DC, ’tis merely a passing whimsy. I’ve taken the medication and normal service has been resumed! 🙂

Thank goodness….. I thought we’d lost you for a minute there! :rolleyes:

One of my favourite warbird photos EVER is of ‘863, low and fast on a wingtip at Wanaka several years ago.

Surely not as good as the one in my avatar 😮

😮

Mark!

I’m shocked that you should be asking about these flighty Supermarine types….

Go back and look at your Hunter again. You’ll soon remember how fighters should be!

Calm down DC, ’tis merely a passing whimsy. I’ve taken the medication and normal service has been resumed! 🙂

One of my favourite warbird photos EVER is of ‘863, low and fast on a wingtip at Wanaka several years ago. STUNNING picture. Haven’t seen it in a while, though… 🙁

The picture earlier in this thread of a spitfire with the code letters FUP can anyone tell me what a/c this is as I cannot recollect seeing this one before

Its Mk XVI, TB863 (ex G-CDAN), now Australia based but formerly for many years with the Alpine Fighter Collection at Wanaka, New Zealand – its the same one in my avatar!

The picture earlier in this thread of a spitfire with the code letters FUP can anyone tell me what a/c this is as I cannot recollect seeing this one before

L.F and H.F designations are only in relation to the originally installed engine, ie: the Merlin 70 in a H.F.IX.

😮

Mark!

I’m shocked that you should be asking about these flighty Supermarine types….

Go back and look at your Hunter again. You’ll soon remember how fighters should be!

Who is this Heratic !!!!!!!!!! Hawker Who !!!!!!!!! The only Hunter I think worth mentioning is the one my other half thinks is rather handsom on the telly !!!

Assuming that the L in LF does stand for ‘Low-level’ can anyone clarify for me the airframe differences between an LF and a plain F?

None that I can think of.The wingtips were removed and capped is all I can think of.

Assuming that the L in LF does stand for ‘Low-level’ can anyone clarify for me the airframe differences between an LF and a plain F?
Also why is the Spit the only type that seems to have this distinguishing letter?

😮

Mark!

I’m shocked that you should be asking about these flighty Supermarine types….

Go back and look at your Hunter again. You’ll soon remember how fighters should be!

Thanks for the info everyone.

Clear as mud now! 😀

Ah stumbled across LF.IX the other day, going to sound like a total loon but what does the L stand for?

According to the V manual it was low altitude.
Edgar

I always thought it was Low-level, or Low-altitude…. :confused:

To be honest, the more I try to pay attention to the Spitfire threads on this forum, the more confused I become! :p :diablo:

I think (always prefix my limited Spirtfire information with “I think”) you are right, but rather than an actual “job description” it was describing the supercharger – where a supercharged engine produced its maximum power: below 10.000 L.F, below 20.000 F, above 25.000 H.F.

It was not used throughout the war, so the L.F.Mark IX (with a Merlin 266) might have changed designation to Mark XVI as Edgar Brooks points out.

Weren’t all MkXVI built at Castle Bromwich, whilst Supermarine production switched to the Griffon models?

If the case would it be then accurate to say late production MkIX used surplus LF Merlins laying around whilst MkXVI used Packard engines and both these were coming out of Castle Bromwich at the same time on the only Merlin Spit line still operating?

Then it was about Feb45 wasn’t it they introduced cut down backs and bubble canopies on all Spits? So then you had Merlin LF MkIX and Packard MkXVI coming from Castle Bromwich with cut down backs alongside the Griffons at Supermarine.

Supermarine had just finished the MkVIII line when they switched to the Griffons, which were based on modified VIII’s, the whole story goes like that doesn’t it?

So the thing with the late IX, XVI, VIII and XII/XIV all seems to start making sense given we’re really talking about two major production lines with specific tooling rather than “dozens of Spit variants”

There’s a Spit V base set of tools at Bromwich, and a Spit VIII base set of tools at Supermarine in 1943 and that’s where all of the latewar Spit variants were coming from.

Have I got that right?

Why can’t everyone just call it a Spitfire and say it’s not a Hurricane, life would be so much easier!:dev2:

And yes I know talk like that will get me a life time ban on here!

I wondered that myself along with low-back, but the L designation seems to be unique to Spitfires.

I always thought it was Low-level, or Low-altitude…. :confused:

To be honest, the more I try to pay attention to the Spitfire threads on this forum, the more confused I become! :p :diablo:

No, in fact the XVI didn’t exist, as a Mark no., in its own right, until August, 1944; prior to that it was known as the L.F.IX…

Ah stumbled across LF.IX the other day, going to sound like a total loon but what does the L stand for?