The Spitfire Mk IX is considered by many scale modellers as the definitive Spitfire, perhaps because its particular upgrades and modifications were forged in the heat of battle. The truth is that by mid-1942 the formidable Focke Wulf Fw 190 was gaining the upper hand in air superiority in the West, outclassing the Spitfire Mk.V. Something had to be done. The outcome was the Spitfire MK IX, employing the two-stage superchargers of the Spitfire Vb, plus a strengthened airframe specifically designed to benefit the introduction of the new Rolls Royce erlin 60 and 70 engines in a lengthened nose section. In fact, these airframe improvements proved so successful that they paved the way for the later Griffon engines variants. The Mk IX (Vickers Supermarine Type 361) proved to have a quantum leap in performance with its adoption of the Merlin 60, originally developed for the Wellington bomber, providing a top speed of 403 mph at 27/400 feet, and a climb to 30,000 feet in ten minutes. The RAF set up a High Altitude Right at RAF Northolt to capitalise on this impressive performance, especially to counter the threat of the four engine Junkers Ju86R, adapted from bomber to high altitude reconnaissance configuration used by the Luftwaffe.
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