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Re: Natural metal Spitfires.
Photo-recce aircraft in bare metal? I thought that the subjects were fighters? Was 40 SAAF a PR unit - I thought that was 60 SAAF with Mosquitoes? Or is this a reference to FR aircraft - fighters with a fuselage camera for low-level work?
Franek: I suspect that the PR Mk. XIX had little height advantage over the later PR Mosquitoes, but that can be settled by consulting books I don't have to hand. Certainly Mosquitoes flew recce missions over Eastern Europe in the early days of the Cold War. However, it may well be true that the MiG 15 was the first aircraft capable of (regularly?) intercepting the PR.XIX, but that has little to do with the jet/piston argument in principle. It is much more to do with the capabilities of early Russian jet fighters, the Russian Air Defence system, and the ability to route around defence centres. In the same way as the 8th AF rendered the Me 163 threat impotent by simply not flying near their bases.
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