View Single Post
  #32  
Old 15th February 2005, 18:14
Nash Nash is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 9
Nash
You forced me to look up the production numbers, which tell an interesting story.

Out of over 20,000 Spitfires built, almost exactly 1 in 20 was a Spitfire XVI, which of course served for a fairly short time (as Franek points out, some early IXs were serving for years, as were many Spitfire Vs.)

So if in 9 Spitfires was a XVI, you'd expect in 9 engine failures to be as well. In fact, if there were 9 engine failures in Mk XVIs, you'd expect 180 in all Spits, and yet Six Nifty .50s says there were only 162, which gives the XVI a slightly higher failure rate than average.

Quote:
I have to say that I never saw any complaints concerning Packards in Mustangs used to chase V1s but that they worked quite rough. Perhaps no direct comparison to RR Merlins there?
Neil Sterling would be the best person to ask, as he has dug a lot of information on 100/150 fuel and it's use out of the British archives. I believe the information about the Spitfire XVI stopping the use of 100/150 early came from him, but I can't find it at the moment. One of the things I found though talks of timing problems on Packard built engines when running at 25 lbs boost that aren't present on RR engines.
Reply With Quote