SPITFIRE Mk IXc m61 VSH, 64 Sqdn
CFS3 - V2.85.09
This aircraft was built by Bill "SPITFRND" Wilson using version 2.85.09 of the AvHistory 1% Assembly Line process. It is based on the new CFS3 Spitfire MkIXc visual 3D model created by and painted by Josh Ziebarth "ZUYAX".
ZUYAX painted this plane in the livery of Pilot Officer Donald Kingaby, No 64 Squadron, Hornchurch, July 1942. Kingaby scored the first kill of an FW 190 by a Mark IX on July 30, 1942, taking out the enemy aircraft with a short burst from around 400 yards. The action was one of the first involving the new Mark IXs and marked a turning point in the European air war.
64 Squadron's V for Victor on a Scramble.
Kingaby flew as a figher pilot for the RAF from June of 1940, flying with 92 Squadron during the Battle of Britain. He survive the war with a score of 21 enemy aircraft destroyed, 2 shared destroyed, 6 probable and 11 damaged. BR600 also survived the war and remained in the RAF until 1949.
In September 1941, the RAF was shocked by the apperance of the FW-190 in the skies over France and the channel. The new German aircraft was superior to the Spitfire in climb, dive and roll and more than 20 mph faster and every altitude. Figher Command losses mounted alarmingly and the Air Ministy put out a demand for a fighter that could engauge the new threat on at least a position of equality.
Supermarine and Rolls Royce promptly answered this challenge by adding an another blower and an intercooler to the Merlin 45 engine that powered the Mark V Spitfire to create the Merlin 61. This engine change was married to a slightly modified Mark V airframe to produce the so called intermim solution designated the Mark IX. The first Mark IX, powered by the new Merlin 61 flew on September 27, 1941.
64ths L for Love takes to the air.
The Mark IX was an immediate success and enabled the RAF to once again engauge the Luftwaffe on equal terms. Subsequent testing at Boscombe Down against a captured FW 190 revealed that the Mark IX compared very favorably. The IX was slightly slower below 4,000 feet, faster from 6,000 to 16,000 feet, slower at 18,000 feet and faster above 25,000 feet. The new Spitfire was found to have a slight advantage in climb rate, a slight disadvantage in the dive and retained the traditional Spitfire advantage in turn radius. As more and more RAF units were refitted with the Mark IX, the RAF again begin to wrest air superiority back from the Luftwaffe.
The preceding text includes original and edited material provided by Bill Wilson from the following sources: Spitfire, Story of a Famous Fighter, Bruce Robertson; Spitfire, The History, Eric Morgan & Edward Shacklady; Malta - the Spitfire Year; The Secret Years, Flight Testing at Bascombe Down, Tim Mason; The Spitfire Story, Alfred Price; Spitfire Mark V Aces, Alfred Price; Famous Fighters of the Second World War, William Greene; Aircraft of WWII, Steward Wilson; Spitfire, Flying Legend, John Dibbs and Tony Holmes; Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine,
http://www.airspacemag.com; Spitfires and Polished Metal, Graham Moss New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum,
www.nzfpm.co.nz and Sky Corner Aviation Reference, Drawings, Spitfire Mk5,
www.airwar.ru.
You can fly with the 64th The first RAF squadron to get the new Spitfire Mk IXc M-61's with a download from the 1% site, AvHistory.
BEAR - AvHistory
http://www.avhistory.org
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