Spitfire Question

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

I read somewhere (might have been on here) that after a certain mark, they stopped putting aerial wire on Spitfires. Can anyone shed some light on this, is it correct and if so what was the last mark to have aerial wires?

 

thanks

Mike

[gingerbob]

Not so much which Mark as when.  With the VHF (?) radios, which began to be introduced in summer '40, but slowly, the wire was within the mast, so the long one from there to the rudder was deleted.  BUT, there were other places (Med, Russia?) where they used the old style longer.  If there's no spike on the top of the rudder, there's no wire from mast to rudder.  Even if there IS a spike, there might not be...

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

Is there a first mark at all, that was only built with the VHF radios?

 

thanks

Mike

[Graham Boak]

Photos of the Mk.IV show it with the VHF radio.  Which is a bit of a Microsoft answer - totally correct and entirely not what you wanted to know.  

 

I suspect the answer may be more complex, in that aircraft may well have been built - as in come off the production line - without radios, these being like the armament, Government Furnished Equipment to be added at the MU.  However some radios is likely to have been fitted for test flying and transfer to the MU.  There are views of early Mk.Vs with HF radio, and aircraft converted to Tropical standard were/could be fitted with the HF radio as standard.

 

How about the Mk.VI?  Well, a few were sent to Egypt so which radio did they have?  There have been photos on this board...

 

Mk.VII?  Entire career in the UK.  But was it earlier into service than the Mk.IX?  I don't think so.

 

Mk.IX?  There were some early ones sent out to Tunisia, and they do not seem to have had the HF, so the Mk.IX is the first of the high-production variants mentioned so far.

 

Then there are the PR variants to consider, which often don't have any radio at all.

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

At the moment I'm building a Mk VIII and I've just built a IIb but I've got many Spitfire Models from the Battle of Britain Mk Ia up to and including the Griffon powered late war and post war marks, so I'm trying to have a general rule of thumb to work on as it would take a huge amount of time doing things on an individual basis. The Mk VIII's are Aussie ones at the moment until Eduard release the Profipack with RAF SEAC markings in it.

 

thanks

Mike

[Graham Boak]

In the end, it will depend upon the exact aircraft you are modelling, and the advice is always to look at the photographs.  Relying upon general rules of thumb can be dodgy, particularly in overseas theatres mid-war, which I strongly suspect means that your Mk.VIII is ok.  

 

You may also need to consider the IFF fit, which early in the war involved aerials from the fuselage side to the tip of the tailplane.  This was superseded by a small aerial under the wing.  If so, this should be present on the Eduard kit.  I suspect that it you read through the pages of the dedicated Spitfire question threads you will find out the answer to that, and possibly a few more things.  I do recall discussion on Aussie Mk.VIIIs as to when the torque-links changed from the front to the rear of the u/c leg (or was it the other way around?).

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

It's always more complicated than you think!

 

thanks

Mike

[gingerbob]

Welcome to the world of the Spitfire.

[Beard]

Maybe a bit late, and you may already have seen it, but this is quite a good reference for Spitfire aerials: http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/spitfire-masts-and-aerials.html

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

18 hours ago, Beard said:

Maybe a bit late, and you may already have seen it, but this is quite a good reference for Spitfire aerials: http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/spitfire-masts-and-aerials.html

 

Thanks Mr Beard! That's sort of what I was looking for and should help a lot.

 

thanks

Mike