Spitfire drop tanks?

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bladerunner900
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Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by bladerunner900 »

Reading another thread prompted me to trawl through the manager.xml file for the Spit. and I spotted three entries for drop tanks. A 30, 90 and 170. Is there any way to make them active?

Thanks.

Steve.

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Dreamsofwings
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by Dreamsofwings »

.....or perhaps for beer barrels. :D
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bladerunner900
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by bladerunner900 »

Yes, that went on from what I read. Although these entries suggest 'slipper' tanks more than drop tanks to me. I'd be curious to know why they were never implemented. Was an upgrade ever intended and if so what happened to it?

Dogsbody55
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by Dogsbody55 »

bladerunner900 wrote: 17 Jul 2020, 07:32 Yes, that went on from what I read. Although these entries suggest 'slipper' tanks more than drop tanks to me. I'd be curious to know why they were never implemented. Was an upgrade ever intended and if so what happened to it?
Drop tanks didn't arrive until the Mk V, so not applicable to Mk's I and II. It's a great pity that A2A never released their Mk V as this mark had so many advances or variations on the I and II. Two speed supercharging, negative G carburetter, drop tanks, tropical filters and cropped wing tips to name the most obvious ones, but really the Mk V was the first properly war ready version of the Spitfire.


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Mike
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bladerunner900
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by bladerunner900 »

It is indeed, a damn shame they never released the Mk V. We all know it's there. Maybe we will get a V and a IX. They've done the work on both.

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guillaume78150
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by guillaume78150 »

Pilots who flew early MKV called it "clipped, clapped, cropped"... It was developed as a low fighter and was outperformed by the 190.
The MK IX which followed was a much better fighter.

Dogsbody55
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by Dogsbody55 »

guillaume78150 wrote: 18 Jul 2020, 08:13 Pilots who flew early MKV called it "clipped, clapped, cropped"... It was developed as a low fighter and was outperformed by the 190.
The MK IX which followed was a much better fighter.
Mk V and Mk IX production ran concurrently for some time, possibly because of a shortage of Merlins with 2 stage supercharging. I think the LFMk V was implemented after production of the Mk IX began, to answer a need for the low altitude attacks by FW-190's on England's south coastal towns. The thinking was that at low altitude, there wasn't much difference between the two marques. Some squadron's actually exchanged Mk IX's for the LFMk V, as described in Pierre Clostermann's book, The Big Show. He described them as Mk Vd's (???), being "clipped, cropped and clapped", referring to the clipped wings that were supposed to improve roll rate at low altitude, the cropped supercharger impeller of the Merlin 45M supposed to give more power at lower altitudes, and "clapped" refers to them being worn out after having flown the Mk IX as they weren't able to deal with the FW-190's all that well.


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Mike
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guillaume78150
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by guillaume78150 »

Pierre Clostermann refered to the V as a "pig", unable to cope with the 190 roll rate and gutless above 10.000 feet. The Mk IX was a much better proposition, outperforming the A8 in speed, rate of climb and turn rate. The A8 roll rate made it still dangerous in dog fight. The true german masterpiece was the "Daimlered" D9. Pierre Clostermann was shot down by one when flying his Tempest.

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: Spitfire drop tanks?

Post by Lewis - A2A »

From memory the A8 isn't a fair comparison for the IX as the A8 was the pig of the 190's. I believe the A8 was the extra up armoured version and though no slouch was the slower of the 190 series with a specialist design emphasis on bomber busting, and the F8 being the same vein for the ground pounding variant.

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Lewis
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