Mk. XX vs Mk. 20

[CJE]

When did the British Air Ministry change the roman numerals of aircraft versions for arabic numerals?
And why?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[Juha]

IIRC sometimes 1942-43, and the change aplied only to future contracts. Why? A wild guess, the war and massive expansion of RAF had meant that smaller % of supply etc officers had got classical education in public schools, so roman numerals were potentially source of misunderstandings which might have had serious consequences.

Juha

[Bill Walker]

The change actually occurred in 1948. You may be thinking of the introduction of role prefixes (as in F.IX) which occurred in 1942. As for the reason, I suspect it was just easier to write the Arabic numerals, especially when you got up to numbers like XVIII. Also easier to tell apart 7 and 8 than VII and VIII.

I should add that the RCAF switched earlier, in 1945. This was largely due to mark number blocks being allocated in the 10s and 20s for licence built British aircraft in Canada. Can you picture the problems with hand written correspondence requesting what part numbers to use for the Mk. XXIV, XXV and XXVI?

[Juha]

Hello Bill
to the end of 1942 roman numbers, then new variants in Arabic numbers, from 1948 all a/c variants with Arabic according to Alfred Price. I also recall a 1943 letter from 5th Sea Lord to Air Ministry, which is quoted in Morgan’s & Shacklady’s Spitfire book, in which the Sea Lord used designation F.21, when talking on newest version of Spits in test-phase. He wanted a naval version of it as soon as possible, even if that meant non-folding wings. But it clearly isn't quite clear-cut. Price begin to use Arabic on Mk 18, M & S on F. 21.

Juha

[Pilot]

Mk. XIX still used Roman number, all after the type 20 Spitfires used Arab numbers.

[Graham Boak]

I suspect Juha's comment should be qualified to new variants planned after the end of 1942, for clearly new variants entered service with Latin numbers much later than that date.

[Juha]

Hello Graham
Price in his The Spitfire Story, year 2000 print, ie reprint of the 1995 revised edition, writes "From 1943 until 1948 the new a/c entering service carried arabic mark numbers while the older types retained their roman numerals."

IMHO it maybe would be better to replace "entering service" with "initiated during that period", if even that is entirely correct. Anyway I'm with Pilot and Morgan & Shacklady that initially Mk XVIII and Mk XIX were known with the roman mark numbers, but I'm not a Spitfire specialist.

Juha

[Pilot]

Juha- I am also not very informed about Spitfire but in this moment I completing illustrations for the book about the recce Spitfires and gentleman who are authors state this mark for the Mk. XIX and the later was marked different. By the way- Alfred Price is great author.

Cheers

[Kutscha]

There is also engines. There was the Merlin XX but the next Merlin was the 21.

The Mosquito used Roman numerals after B. XX.

I would think someone came to their senses, to keep the number of characters down. ie Mosquito NF. 38 > Mosquito NF. XXXVIII

[Graham Boak]

I suspect there may not be a single answer. To get away from Spitfires, as far as I know the Halifax continued to use Latin numbers up to the final A Mk.IX, which even as a idea post-dated 1943.