Four Cannon Spits

Wahey, I was almost right! The grey matter didn’t fail for a change 😉

DP845 – maiden flight: 27 November 1941. Redesignated a MkXX not long after its maiden flight, then it became the prototype MkXII; Jeffrey Quill noted his first flight in DP845 as a MkXII on 10 April 1942 🙂

Originally posted by Dan Johnson
I think it had to do with the performance loss from the additional weight. Seems like I remember reading that the Malta Vcs even had the machine guns removed too and went with just two cannon.

Personally I think the look of the 2 Squadron SAAF Spitfire Vcs flying over Italy with their 4 cannon Spits look very tough.

And of course there’s this Spit with the 6 cannons 🙂

Dan

I would think that firing that lot would have been like a built in head wind if it had gone to trials:)

Can’t remember what it ended up as, but it was Jeffrey Quill’s favourite Spitfire.

If I remember correctly, DP845 was the prototype Griffon Spitfire MkIV, then MkXII, then the MkXX prototype.

I hope!

Originally posted by Ant Harrington
Christ!:eek: I’d never seen that six-cannon Spit before,I bet there was some serious recoil when that lot went off!Would I be right in thinking this is the original Mk.IV (as opposed to PR.IV)?IIRC correctly,this was the first Spit powered by a Griffon.

This six cannon set up was only a mock up. Sorry!

Re: Four Cannon Spits

Originally posted by Ant Harrington
Seeing the pics of NH238 on the Piece of Cake thread made me wonder why so few C and E-winged Spits appear to have been fitted with the full complement of four cannon.I’ve seen a handful of pics showing four cannon Mk.Vc’s in North Africa,but that’s about it.
Any ideas why this was?Having the hardest-hitting armament possible would seem like the sensible option.

Only the ‘C’ or universal wing was able to be fitted with two canons giving the Spitfire the four cannons that you remark on. The ‘E’ wing was not universal. It was designed to take a 20mm hispano in the outer bay and .5″ (’50 cal’) Browning heavy machine gun in the inner bay. Giving the ‘e’ Spitfires x2 20mm cannons and x2 ’50 cal’ Brownings. As such NH238 was wrongly equipped!

Ant that was indeed a serious proposal.

I remember when I first saw that picture many years ago thinking “Now what if!” 😮

Cheers

Paul

Yes Ant, This was a very serious proposal!
The aircraft was flown with the wooden mock-up of the cannons to check handling and performance. It never went beyond that stage however. IIRC the wing was not strong enough to take the recoil of the six guns and they had problems getting ammo to the center gun.

When you say ‘mock up’,was it a serious proposal or someone taking the p!$$?Or someone mucking about on Photoshop for that matter?:confused:

DP845 as the MkIV with a mockup of a 6 cannon installation. Made of wood I believe 🙂

Dan

Christ!:eek: I’d never seen that six-cannon Spit before,I bet there was some serious recoil when that lot went off!Would I be right in thinking this is the original Mk.IV (as opposed to PR.IV)?IIRC correctly,this was the first Spit powered by a Griffon.

I think it had to do with the performance loss from the additional weight. Seems like I remember reading that the Malta Vcs even had the machine guns removed too and went with just two cannon.

Personally I think the look of the 2 Squadron SAAF Spitfire Vcs flying over Italy with their 4 cannon Spits look very tough.

And of course there’s this Spit with the 6 cannons 🙂

Dan

Those were my thoughts n’all Daz,I was just wondering if there was a definate answer.It also occurred to me that perhaps the recoil of all four might have been a bit much for the Spit,being as she wasn’t the steadiest gun platform (or so it’s said.)

Maybe the weight gained in fitting all four would be degrading to the Spitfire’s handling?

Or lack of cannons?