copied from another forum
Quoted from Morgan and Shacklady’s Spitfire book. This all they have written up about the Aboukir filter
“The large Vokes tropical intake was not well liked by the services and it was not long before unofficial modifications began to appear, the most successful and designed and installed by that most resourceful team at No. 103 MU Aboukir. They trimmed the filter back to a much smaller unit, one that was more efficient and drag reducing. It was named the Aboukir filter and the Vokes Aero-Vee, fitted to the Mark IX Spitfire, was based upon this local modification. Supermarine was quick to appreciate the lower drag of the modified intake and they tested a number of hand-built units on two VC’s and a Seafire Mk. II. The test comprised speed runs with the normal temperate intake, the normal tropical and Aboukir. The VC’s were EF541 and JK940 and Seafire NM977, the former with Merlin 45’s and de Havilland hydromatic propellors, the latter with Merlin 46’s and Rotol Jablo. The new type of cowling was infinitely better of the three tested and there was a weight reduction of 20 pounds. Another bonus was that with the filter element removed the Aboukir could be used as a normal temperature intake.”
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