Eight Ways to Fly a Spitfire

G'day Pilots!

The Spitfire V2 comes with eight variants across three different marks of Spitfire, so here's a quick rundown of what you'll be getting, along with a little of the history behind each one.

The Mk.IX

When the Fw 190 turned up over France in late 1941, it completely outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V. The proper answer was the redesigned Mk.VIII, but that was still most of a year away, so as a stopgap the new two-stage Merlin 61 was fitted to a lightly modified Mk.V airframe. The result was around 40 mph faster at height, and the 'stopgap' stayed competitive right through to the end of the war.

Our Mk.IX is the LF version with the Merlin 66, which was by far the most common, and it comes in four versions:

• Mk.IXc: the C wing with two 20mm Hispano cannon & four .303 Brownings, the rounded rudder and a hand wobble pump in the cockpit
• Mk.IXe: the later E wing, with two .50 cal Brownings in place of the .303s, and the broad-chord rudder
• Clipped wing versions of both. Clipping the wingtips took around 4 feet off the span, giving a faster roll rate and a little more speed down low at the cost of climb and high-altitude performance. You can expect to feel the difference in the sim of course, as we have taken full advantage of MSFS 2024's modular aircraft design system to ensure that the clipped wing variants have their own unique flight model.

The Mk.VIII

The Mk.VIII was the Spitfire designed from the start for the two-stage Merlin, with a strengthened fuselage, retractable tailwheel, broad rudder and a 14 gallon fuel tank in each wing leading edge. By the time it was ready the Mk.IX was already in full production, so the Mk.VIII was sent overseas instead and served almost entirely in the Mediterranean, Burma and the Pacific. Australia ordered 410 of them, with the first arriving in 1943 for the defence of Darwin, so of course this one is a bit special for us!

In the sim, the Mk.VIII has its own cockpit layout, the wing tanks with their fuel transfer system, and a tailwheel that retracts with the gear. It's also the only variant fitted with a Standard Beam Approach receiver. For those that don't know, this was a wartime blind approach aid; tune it to a runway's ILS frequency and you'll hear dots on one side of the beam, dashes on the other and a steady note when you're on the centreline. There's no glideslope and no needles to follow, so you'll be flying the whole approach by ear!

The Mk.XVI

The Mk.XVI is essentially a Mk.IX with a Packard Merlin 266, which is a Merlin 66 built under licence in Detroit. The airframes came off the same production line, but because the engine spares weren't interchangeable, the Packard-engined aircraft were given their own mark number. You can pick one out by the slightly more bulged upper cowling.

Ours is the late-war version, with the E wing, the cut-down rear fuselage & bubble canopy, two rear fuselage fuel tanks and the gyro gunsight. It comes with both standard and clipped wings.

The Floatplane

A Spitfire floatplane was tried three times during the war. The last and fastest was a single Mk.IX, MJ892, converted in 1944 for the Pacific and usually quoted at around 377 mph, the fastest floatplane fighter ever flown. It never flew an operational sortie, but we couldn't leave it out! Our Mk.IXc Floats has the twin floats, enlarged fin and water rudders, and it means you can fly from the lakes, fjords and harbours of MSFS 2024.

Loadouts

Each variant can be set up how you like from the EFB. The Spitfire can carry a 30, 45 or 90 gallon slipper tank, or you can hang a 500 lb bomb under the fuselage and a 250 lb bomb under each wing (or swap a wing bomb for a barrel of beer!). You can also fit or remove the seat armour, wartime radio and oxygen, and fuel each tank individually. Everything you fit shows on the aircraft and is included in the weight & balance, realistically altering the flight models behaviour. We've taken full advantage of MSFS 2024's flight modelling tools and then some; going as far as adding custom drag models for loadout choices.

Oh, did we mention that the guns & bombs are fully functional? More on that later!

Cheers!
FlyingIron Simulations