Malta Spitfire question

[John Beaman]

Thanks Graham and VoyTech. What you both say makes sense. British policy can often be perfidious .

Graham, BTW, I thought the Merlin 46 was optimised for low level in an attempt to deal with the "tip and run" raiders?

[Graham Boak]

Aircraft with the Merlin 46 are just considered as F variants rather than LF. The low-rated variants had an M suffix - 45M, 50M and 55M. There does not seem to have been a 46M - there was a 46N but I know nothing about it, other than it was not a low-rated engine.

I don't know the differences between the 45, 46, 50 and 55, for that matter.

The low-rated engines may have been inspired by the Jabos but were widely used as a way of lengthening the effective lifespan of the Mk.V, being very potent at low-level (the fastest climbing fighter of WW2, from sealevel) which is why the FAA standardised on them for the Seafire.

[VoyTech]

Originally Posted by John Beaman

Graham, BTW, I thought the Merlin 46 was optimised for low level in an attempt to deal with the "tip and run" raiders?

Quite the opposite, I belive. Merlin 46 was the high-altitude optimised development of the Merlin 45.