Spitfire flying over Farnborough
Spitfire Mk XIX PM 631 flies overhead with undercarriage up at the Farnborough Airshow 2006 on Friday 21st July. Owned by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and powered by the Rolls Royce Griffon 66 engine worldwide. If you look at the pitch of the propellers on earlier spitfires you will notice the engine actually rotated in the opposite direction to the earlier Merlin engine. The wings of early spitfires were also more eliptical in shape and the prop had 3 blades not 5 which came in with the Mark XIV and more powerful Griffon engine. Reconnaissance livery has discreet markings with a red central spot encircled by a dark blue annulus. This made it hard to spot from a distance while taking photographs. Built in November 1945 as a high altitude photo reconnaissance aircraft with pressurised cockpit PM631 was too late to see operational service in WWII. Received by the RAF in 1946 and used by 203 Advanced Flying School in May 1949 and later modified and used for for meteorological work. On 11 July 1957 together with Spitfires PS853 and PS915 the aircraft helped form the Historic Aircraft Flight which later became the BBMF. PM631 has remained in flying condition with the Flight and is the BBMF's longest serving aircraft with 2006 being her 49 th year of continuous service on display duties. PM631 is painted as an early PRXIX of 541 Squadron which performed high altitude reconnaissance missions over Europe from early 1944 to the end of the war. Spitfire PRXIXs were unarmed and the Mk XIX Spitfires were the last in the development of the Spitfire and the piston engine era but what a potential the original Spitfire design had proved. Mark XIX max speed 446 miles per hour at 26000 feet altitude with climb of 15 minutes 30 seconds to reach 35000 feet and a ceiling of up to 42000 feet with the pressurised cockpit. Max range 1500 miles
Size: 3333px × 5007px
Location: Farnborough Airfield Hampshire England Great Britain United Kingdom GB UK
Photo credit: © Christopher Barnes - Aviation / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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