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Last update:
06/15/2008
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Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk XIX |
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Scale 1:33 |
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Author: Evgeniy Polovinnik |
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File Size: 13.1Mb |
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Please take a look at
Our Offer page before placing an
order. |
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Spitfire PR Mk XIX
1 Division, 11 Flotilla
Sweden 1950
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| Price $10.00 |
Model # 040_2 |
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If ordering a CD, please
add $5.45
for Shipping & Handling. One charge per order. |
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Technical data: |
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Length |
9.96 m |
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Span |
11.23 m |
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Engine |
Rolls Royce Griffon 65, 2,050hp |
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Max Speed |
721 km/h |
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Crew |
1 |
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The Mk 19 was the last and greatest
photographic reconnaissance variant of the Spitfire. It combined
features of the Mk XI with the Griffon engine of the Mk XIV. After the
first 25 were produced, later aircraft were also fitted with the
pressurized cabin of the Mk X and the fuel capacity was increased to
256 gallons, three-and-a-half times that of the original Spitfire.
The first Mk
19s entered service in May 1944, and, by the end of the war, the type
had virtually replaced the earlier Mk XI. A total of 225 were built
with production ceasing in early 1946, but they were used in front-line
RAF service until April 1954. In fact, the last time a Mk 19 was used
to perform an operational sortie was in 1963 when one was used in battle
trials against an English
Electric Lightning to determine how best a Lightning should engage
piston-engine aircraft. This information was needed in case RAF
Lightings might have to engage P-51 Mustangs in the Indonesian conflict
of the time. There is an unsubstantiated rumor that the air combat
simulator used to train RAF Tornado pilots retains the aerodynamic data
for this Spitfire, and that the simulated aircraft is sometimes
allocated a pair of Sidewinder missiles to even the odds. (Wikipedia)
In 1945, the Swedish
Air Force had a pressing need for a single-seat reconnaissance plane. As
a stop-gap measure, a number of obsolete J9 fighters (Seversky P-35A)
were converted and transferred to the F11 reconnaissance wing at Skavsta
in Nyköping.
In 1948, the cold war prompted an urgent upgrade of the Swedish AF, but
the planned PR version of Sweden’s indigenous swept-wing jet fighter,
the SAAB J29 ’Flying Barrel’, was delayed since the fighter version had
priority.
As an interim solution, in 1948 a
total of 50 surplus PR Mk XIX Spitfires were bought from England at a
bargain price and assigned to the F11 wing with the Swedish designation
S31. The recce wing was thus equipped with a plane which flew faster and
higher than any of the Swedish AF fighters in service at the time. The
S31 was instrumental in developing new AF reconnaissance tactics.
The last S31 was retired from
Swedish service in August of 1955 and, in an act of bureaucratic
vandalism, every single Spitfire was either scrapped, used for target
practice or relegated to fire fighting drills. Still, an immaculate S31
in Swedish colours is currently on display in the Swedish Air Force
Museum at Malmen near Linköping. (IPMSStockholm.org)
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Model built and photographed by the author, used with
permission. Photos show Spitfire Mk XIV. |
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