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Academy 1/48 Spitfire FR.Mk.XIVE


Academy 1/48 Spitfire FR.Mk.XIVE

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CODE: AC2161
Retail Price: £14.30
Our Price: £12.50
You save: £1.80 
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Description

The Supermarine Spitfire was an iconic British single-seat fighter used primarily by the RAF and many Allied countries through the Second World War and into the 1950s. The Spitfire is not only the most famous allied fighter aircraft of that war, but was produced in greater numbers than any other Allied design. The Spitfire was the only Allied fighter in production at the outbreak of the war that was still in production at the end of the Second World War.

The Spitfire Mark I and Spitfire Mark II saw service during the Battle and beyond, into 1941. Both of these versions of the Spitfire used eight .303 Browning machine guns. It was relatively common during the Battle of Britain for the German planes to return safely to base with surprisingly high numbers of .303 bullet holes as the Luftwaffe machines were receiving progressively more armour in critical areas. The use of a smaller number of heavier, larger calibre guns would have been far more effective, and this was rectified in later versions of the Spitfire.

There were 24 marks of Spitfire and many sub-variants. These covered the Spitfire in development from the Merlin to Griffon engines, the high speed photo-reconnaissance variants and the different wing configurations.

The Spitfire Mk V was the most common type, with 6,479 built, followed by the 5,665 Spitfire Mk IX airframes produced. Different wings, featuring a variety of weapons, were fitted to most marks; the A wing used eight .303 machine guns, the B with four .303 machine guns and two 20 mm Hispano cannon, and the C or Universal Wing which could mount either four 20 mm cannon or two 20 mm and four .303 machine guns. As the war progressed, the C wing became more common. The final armament variation was the E wing which housed two 20 mm cannon and two .50 inch Browning heavy machine guns.

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