The Legendary Spitfire Mk I/II 1939-41

Купить бумажную книгу и читать

The Legendary Spitfire Mk I/II 1939-41 (Aircraft Of The Aces - Men & Legends 01)

By Alfred Price

Publisher: Delprado 1999 128 Pages

ISBN: 8483722046

PDF 8 MB

Without doubt the Spitfire was the most famous fighter type ever to serve in the Royal Air Force, and the most famous action in which it took part was the Battle of Britain. This book describes the operational career of the Mark I and Mark II versions of the fighter in the period before, during and immediately after tharepic action. Virtually from the moment it entered service, the Spitfire under­went a continual programme of modification as Supermarine engineers worked to improve the airframe and Rolls-Royce produced new and more powerful versions of the Merlin engine.

Of course, the Spitfire would have amounted to nothing without the skills of the pilots who flew it. This book also describes many of those who took it into action and, after receiving credit for five or more aerial victories, gained the status of ace. In listing the pilots' cred­ited victor)' scores, I have considered only the confirmed victory claims — unconfirmed claims have been omitted.

Several good friends contributed material and photographs to assist with the preparation of this book. In particular 1 am grateful to Norman Franks, Oilip Sarkar and Bruce Robertson. Ted Hooton gave me the benefit of his vast research into Spitfire modification states, as well as assisting the artists so that they could produce the most accurate colour plates of the aces' aircraft ever published. Yet again I offer my profound thanks to Chris Shores and Clive Williams for allowing me to use material from their superb reference book Aces High. For anyone wishing to learn more about the careers of the RAF fighter aces, this book is strongly recommended.