[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by 41Sqn_Banks

I did check "AP 1565B Vol. I" ("Vol. I" is the full manual; the "Pilot's Notes" are only Section 1 and 2 of this manual).

Section 2 starts with Para 1 "Handling and Flying Notes for Pilots" on page "F.S/3". This is the one posted by Kurfürst, that contains engine limits for 100 and 87 octane fuel. This page is amended by Amendment List 31, I don't have a date for this list but A.L. 30 was issued December, 1943.

Interesting. Do you what was changed with A.L. 31?

At the end in Para 55 of Section 2 there is the unamended page "F.S./16" that contains only limits for 100 octane fuel.

Another interesting point that it appears that +12 lbs was banned at that time for combat use ("5 min all out level"), the maximum allowed was +9, with +12 was only cleared for take off purposes up to 1000 feet. It appears that +12 was not cleared for combat use during the Battle of Britain, and was added only later.

If that's correct, our Spitfire II is running well above (having +12 performance) the established limits applicable (+9 lbs boost) and having a performance not representative for the Battle of Britain period.

With it's historical +9 lbs limitation the Spitfire II was capable of about 290 mph at SL. Ours do well over 300 mph. If Bank's findings are correct, this should be corrected to historical levels.

One does wonder though about what was the point about the Spitfire II, given that at it's historical limit of +9 lbs and 100 octane it was only equal in speed to the Spitfire Mk I on 87 octane fuel and inferior to the Bf 109E on 87 octane fuel (not to mention 96 octane C-3 fuelled variants).

The "List of Contents" (dated June, 1940) confirms that Para 55 contains the "Notes concerning the Merlin XII engine", however Para 1 should actually contain an "Introduction" and not "Handling and Flying Notes for Pilots", which obviously was added later. The unamended Para 1 can be seen in this copy here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4598146/Pi...lin-XII-Engine

This seem to confirm that the unamended Pilot's notes from June 1940 was already referring the Spitfire IIA and IIB types, so Glider's assumption that the mention of cannon armament refers to a later date manual is clearly wrong.