Supermarine Spiteful F Mk.XIV

Supermarine Spiteful F Mk.XIV


Brief history:
Behind the creation of the most powerful and most modern British propeller aircraft were the specifications of the Ministry of Aviation marked F.1/43. Based on these specifications, Supermarine was to develop a new aircraft that, thanks to its laminar profile wing, could make better use of the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine power than Spitfire aircraft with its slim elliptical wing. The name Victor or Valiant was considered for the new aircraft.
Specification F.1/43 originally required the production of Spitfire F Mk.21 s Griffon engine with an improved classic wing, but in October 1944 the Ministry of Aviation excluded from the contract 373 pieces marked F 21 (Laminar Wing), these machines were to have a completely new wing. The last change was the decision that the Spitfire F Mk.21 would remain a "classic" Spitfire ( had very little in common with the classic) and the laminar wing would be designed for a completely new type.


The Supermarine factory used many parts from Spitfires of various versions to accelerate the development of the new aircraft. The first prototype had a modified fuselage Spitfire Mk.VIII and engine Griffon 61, here was similar to the development Spitfire Mk.XIV, but the new aircraft had a completely new single-girder trapezoidal wing with a profile using laminar flow. This prototype first took off on July 30, 1944. The new machine was given the name Spiteful, but the phonetic appearance of the names certainly played a big role in the choice of the name, and in addition the first four letters were identical.
The first prototype showed that the laminar profile of the wing really allowed for growth in performance and, in addition, the stronger wing profile finally allowed the use of a new landing gear, which now retracts towards the fuselage, thus increasing wheelbase and significantly improving the stability of the aircraft was unsolvable in all versions of the Spitfire). Another advantage was that four new Hispano Mk.V cannons could comfortably fit into the wing, and under the wing it was possible to hang more powerful weapons than the Spitfires. However, the new wing not only brought benefits, in some critical flight modes the wing exhibited unsuitable properties, the technicians at the Supermarine factory found that the surface of the wing must be completely smooth and polished if possible, and only the use of higher grain paint will significantly reduce maximum speed. The profile of the wing had to be adhered to within one millimeter. The first prototype flew until September 13, 1944, when it was destroyed in an accident.
The second prototype (serial NN664) had a newly designed fuselage with a lowered back and a teardrop cockpit cover flew again pilot JK Quill on January 8, 1945 and shortly thereafter took off the third prototype (serial NN667) with modified ailerons, with a completely redesigned larger vertical tail surface and air inlet to the compressor shifted from the level of the leading edge of the wing to below the propeller cone. The new tail surfaces forced a different arrangement of fuel tanks, which led to a change in the center of gravity of the aircraft. These new "Spiteful" tail surfaces were used on Spitfires F Mk.22 a F Mk.24. It is the appearance of these aircraft that often leads to the misconception that the Spiteful is the next development stage of the Spitfire F Mk.24. However, the Spiteful is a completely new aircraft that took off before the last version of the Spitfire.
At the beginning of 1945, the production of a verification series of Spitefuls Mk. XIV. The first aircraft of this pre-series (serial RB515) was powered by an engine Griffon 65 and flew from April 2, 1945. It was followed by sixteen other aircraft (serial RB516 to RB531) with Griffon 69 engines.The RAF took over only eight of these Spitefuls F Mk.XIV, the others were transported by land (!) To repair units, they no longer flew here and gradually ended up in scrap.
The Spiteful aircraft came clearly late, the war ended in Europe and the Pacific, and it was also clear that the future would belong to jet fighters. Nowhere did I find a satisfactory explanation for why the designation Spiteful Mk.XIV was used, when there were no Spiteful Mk.I-XIII.


Sources used:
William Green and Gordon Swanborough, The Complete Book of Fighters, Zenith Press; year 2001, ISBN13: 978-0760311943
Pavel Berger and Zdeněk Svoboda, Spitfire Fighters with Griffon Engine, Our Army, year 1994, ISBN 80-206-0489-8
L + K 14/2002, Aircraft 39 - 45, Supermarine Spiteful - M. Balous 14/950
L + K 12/1967 Supermarine Monograph Spiteful, Václav Němeček
http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fww2/spitful.html
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Photo by Spiteful F.XIV
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Trojpohledový sketch Spitefulu
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