Airfix A05135 Supermarine Spitfire XIV 1:48

Continuing the wartime development of the famous Supermarine Spitfire, the Mk.XIV saw the classic shape of Mitchell's celebrated fighter paired with the awesome power of the new Rolls Royce Griffon engine. The resultant aircraft was superb and one of the RAFs most capable fighters of WWII, proving particularly successful when employed against the V-1 flying bomb attacks which Germany launched against southern Britain, from the summer of 1944.

The adoption of the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine provided the Spitfire with a significant increase in performance, but not without presenting Supermarine designers and pilots converting to the aircraft with a few challenges. Installation of the new engine in the existing Spitfire airframe required a redesign of both the front and rear sections of the aircraft and the use of a distinctive five bladed Rotol propeller. Pilots used to flying Merlin engined versions of the aircraft would find the Griffon turned in the propeller in the opposite direction and whilst the earlier aircraft tended to veer to the left on take-off, the Griffon powered machines would veer in the opposite direction if the pilot forgot and applied their usual corrective inputs, their first flight could be a particularly short and uncomfortable one.

A05135 - Supermarine Spitfire MkXIV 1/48 Aircraft flown by Squadron Leader James Bernard Prendergast, No. 414 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, B156 Lunberg, Germany, May/June 1945. (A)

A05135 - Supermarine Spitfire MkXIV 1/48 No.II (AC) Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF), RAF Buckeburg, Germany, 1950.51. (B)