I was watching the movie titled “The Battle of Britain” a few days ago and I’m imspired to build a Spitfire model. I am most interested in the variation that contains the twin wing scoops. The earlier versions have a scoop only on the right wing. I’m interested in the twin scoop version prior to the latter versions that have the chin scoop. Does anyone know which Mark xxxx version this plane was? I thought it’d be easy to find this out on the internet but it’s not.
thanks in advance.
I don’t recall which version was used in making the movie, but the Spits used in the actual BOB were MkI & MkII’s.
Regards, Rick
What do you mean by scoops? Are you refering to the radiators? The BoB film used several marks of Spitfires which only came later. Only Mk Is and IIs were used during the real conflict. Up to the Mk V the larger rectangular engine radiator was fitted under the starboard wing and the smaller rounded oil cooler under the port. The latter was replaced on the Mk IX with another rectangular unit. The more powerful engine required a larger frontal area to cool it and the radiator was split into two sections, each more than half the size of the old one. These were placed in the starboard halfs of each radiator unit. The oil cooler was in the port wing unit and intercooler in the starboard.
These may help http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/spithome.htm http://aeroflt.users.netlink.co.uk/types/uk/supermarine/spitfireI-III/Spitfire1.htm
I believe the dual air scoops under the wings were introduced with the Mk IX and Mk VIII. This was because the 60 series merlin engine needed more coolant. The variants from Mk I to MkV had the large scoop on the right and the smaller one on the left. The Mk V was introduced in 1941 and the Mk IX in 1942.
As Rick mentioned above, only the Spitfire Mk I and Mk II particiapted in the BoB.
Yes, it was the twin radiator scoops. I agree that it wasn’t used in the BoB but it is the best looking one to me. Thanks to the links, I was able to find out it was the Mk XIV version shown at this link:
I’ll probably build both along with a 109 and Hurricane as part of my BoB display.
thanks again guys.
The reason for the larger port radiator, was because the later mark Menlins were fitted with a 2-stage supercharger, which needed an intercooler between the stages. Rolls-Royce went with a liquid cooled intercooler, which needed a radiator. The port side scoop was divided into 2 parts. The larger intercooler radiator and the smaller oil cooler.