SAAF Spitfire Vc - centreline bomb carrier

[Olmec Head]

Having asked about the paint scheme for the new Airfix Spitfire Vc in 2 Sqn SAAF makings at my last post,  I thought the next would be the centreline bomb carrier shown on some aircraft of the Sqn:

 

 

 

 

The bomb is I understand a 250lb, not a centreline 500lb as carried by Spitfire IXs.  I also understand from previous BM posts on this that the film and photo series may have been done from a live trial of the aircraft over hostile targets in Italy.  So the bomb carrier may not have been a permanent fixture.  

 

The 500lb bomb carrier looks like this:

 

 

 

So the real aircraft seems to be fitted with a bomb rail that is not the same and possibly doesn't have the cruciform attachment to the fuselage either - my surmation.

 

Or could it be an adaption form a Hurricane wing bomb rail?  or possible a in field mod of the central fuel tank carrier:

 

 

Again any ideas are most welcome please.

 

Richard

 

 

 

 

[Graham Boak]

It looks very much like the standard store carrier, which could carry either size of bomb.  The Hurricane just has one of these inside the wing covered by an aerodynamic fairing.  Decent approximations to this can be found in kits such as the Revell Halifax and Airfix Swordfish.

 

I'm not familiar with the "fuel tank carrier" as shown, but it appear to be inadequately strong and lacking in sway bracing at the rear.

[M20gull]

They were not permanent. During this phase the squadron was used for dive bombing ops and fighting ops sometimes on the same day and the bomb racks were constantly being put on and taken off.  You can sense the frustration in the Operation Record Book.

[Olmec Head]

3 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

It looks very much like the standard store carrier, which could carry either size of bomb.  The Hurricane just has one of these inside the wing covered by an aerodynamic fairing.  Decent approximations to this can be found in kits such as the Revell Halifax and Airfix Swordfish.

 

I'm not familiar with the "fuel tank carrier" as shown, but it appear to be inadequately strong and lacking in sway bracing at the rear.

45 minutes ago, M20gull said:

They were not permanent. During this phase the squadron was used for dive bombing ops and fighting ops sometimes on the same day and the bomb racks were constantly being put on and taken off.  You can sense the frustration in the Operation Record Book.

 

Thanks Graham, as soon as I read your reply, I thought of course how obvious and felt somewhat  foolish,  particularly on the fuel carrier front.

 

And thanks M20gull for filling in the detail for the squadron on the bomb fitting.   Just out of interest does it give an indication of why they were limited to one 250lb bomb rather than 500lb please.

 

I am now surmising that that the bomb carrier would have had the cruciform fuselage attachment as above to fix to, or more grammatically to which to fix.

[alt-92]

if that's the Eduard resin bomb rack in the second pic, it should be possible to invert the central bar while assembling to make it look like on the Mk.Vc in the shot.

[M20gull]

500lb bombs are not discussed. They did a test with 2x250lb bombs but no clue how they were loaded. I particularly love their description of the Spitfire as "most unsuitable as a dive-bomber". 

[Graham Boak]

Malta developed its own method for attaching a 250lb bomb under each wing without significant external drag when the bomb was released.  Presumably this was what was used in the trials.  As the aircraft was capable of carrying 500lb payload in this configuration, it could have carried a single 500lb had this been attempted.