Aces High
Built at the end of 1944 at Keevil, this Vickers Armstrong Mk XIV Spitfire MV268 was stored by the RAF until early 1945. It was sent, from 33MU at RAF Lyneham, to India where details of whatever service she saw have been lost in the mists of time – and the Royal Indian Air Force records system. She was recovered to Blackbushe, in England, by Doug Arnold in the early seventies and formed part of his Warbirds of Great Britain collection. The Fighter Collection engineers took over the restoration when Spitfire MV268 changed hands and were able to complete the work in August of 1992. MV293 as she was originally registered was the first example of its mark to be flying in Europe at that time and was painted in the all silver colours of the post war RAF. In 2000, the aircraft was repainted in the colours of Johnnie Johnson, the highest scoring RAF fighter pilot to survive the war, as a surprise for his attendance at Flying Legends and as a tribute to his last war service Spitfire.
Although the Griffon-engined Spitfires were never produced in the large numbers of the Merlin-engined variants they were an important part of the Spitfire family, and in their later versions kept the Spitfire at the forefront of piston-engined fighter development.
The first Griffon-powered Spitfires suffered from poor high altitude performance due to having only a single stage supercharged engine. By 1943, Rolls-Royce engineers had developed a new Griffon engine, the 61 series, with a two-stage supercharger. In the end it was a slightly modified engine, the 65 series, which was used in the Mk XIV. The resulting aircraft provided a substantial performance increase over the Mk IX. Although initially based on the Mk VIII airframe, common improvements made in aircraft produced later included the cut-back fuselage and tear-drop canopies, and the E-Type wing with improved armament.
warbirdaviation.co.uk/Profiles/vickers-armstrong-spitfire...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(Griffon-powered_variants)#Mk_XIV_(type_379)
Aces High
Built at the end of 1944 at Keevil, this Vickers Armstrong Mk XIV Spitfire MV268 was stored by the RAF until early 1945. It was sent, from 33MU at RAF Lyneham, to India where details of whatever service she saw have been lost in the mists of time – and the Royal Indian Air Force records system. She was recovered to Blackbushe, in England, by Doug Arnold in the early seventies and formed part of his Warbirds of Great Britain collection. The Fighter Collection engineers took over the restoration when Spitfire MV268 changed hands and were able to complete the work in August of 1992. MV293 as she was originally registered was the first example of its mark to be flying in Europe at that time and was painted in the all silver colours of the post war RAF. In 2000, the aircraft was repainted in the colours of Johnnie Johnson, the highest scoring RAF fighter pilot to survive the war, as a surprise for his attendance at Flying Legends and as a tribute to his last war service Spitfire.
Although the Griffon-engined Spitfires were never produced in the large numbers of the Merlin-engined variants they were an important part of the Spitfire family, and in their later versions kept the Spitfire at the forefront of piston-engined fighter development.
The first Griffon-powered Spitfires suffered from poor high altitude performance due to having only a single stage supercharged engine. By 1943, Rolls-Royce engineers had developed a new Griffon engine, the 61 series, with a two-stage supercharger. In the end it was a slightly modified engine, the 65 series, which was used in the Mk XIV. The resulting aircraft provided a substantial performance increase over the Mk IX. Although initially based on the Mk VIII airframe, common improvements made in aircraft produced later included the cut-back fuselage and tear-drop canopies, and the E-Type wing with improved armament.
warbirdaviation.co.uk/Profiles/vickers-armstrong-spitfire...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(Griffon-powered_variants)#Mk_XIV_(type_379)