Spitfire Dawn by Keith Woodcock
Spitfire MK IX's December 1944.
Moment of Truth by Keith Woodcock The print depicts the moment as the first Hurricane of
46 squadron of the Royal Air Force, without arrestor hooks or wires the
squadron was led by Sqd Ldt Kenneth Cross as he approaches the
ill-fated carrier HMS Glorious. during the evacuation of Norway in June
1940. 'Bing' later said, "we showed them they were wrong". The
Fleet Air Arm pilots were delighted saying, "Marvelous bloody
marvelous, now we'll get them too." All had landed safely by 4.30am
on June 8th. These superb prints have been co signed by Sqd ldr
Kenneth cross
Dawn Scramble by Keith Woodcock May 1940 and Hawker Hurricanes of No 501 squadron with the leading
aircraft being flown by Sgt. Ginger Lacey, take off from their
base in France to engage advancing enemy.
Royal
Air Force fighter aircraft, maximum speed for mark I Supermarine Spitfire, 362mph
up to
The Seafire 47 with a top speed of 452mph. maximum ceiling for Mk I
34,000feet up to 44,500 for the mark XIV. Maximum range for MK I 575
miles . up to 1475 miles for the Seafire 47. Armament for the various
Marks of Spitfire. for MK I, and II . eight fixed .303 browning Machine
guns, for MK's V-IX and XVI two 20mm Hispano cannons and four .303 browning
machine guns. and on later Marks, six to eight Rockets under the wings or
a maximum bomb load of 1,000 lbs.
Designed
by R J Mitchell, The proto type Spitfire first flew on the 5th March 1936.
and entered service with the Royal Air Force in August 1938, with 19
squadron based and RAF Duxford. by the outbreak of World war two, there
were twelve squadrons with a total of 187 spitfires, with another 83 in
store. Between 1939 and 1945, a large variety of modifications and
developments produced a variety of MK,s from I to XVI. The mark II
came into service in late 1940, and in March 1941, the Mk,V came into
service. To counter the Improvements in fighters of the Luftwaffe
especially the FW190, the MK,XII was introduced with its Griffin
engine. The Fleet Air Arm used the Mk,I and II and were named
Seafires.
By the end of
production in 1948 a total of 20,351 spitfires had been made and 2408
Seafires. The most produced variant was the Spitfire Mark V, with a
total of 6479 spitfires produced. The Royal Air Force kept Spitfires
in front line use until April 1954.
