Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "Spitfire Mk1 to Mk24 | How Spitfires kept getting better" video.

  1. 1) There are those that a Griffon engined Spit wasn't a Spit, that it lost the sparkling handling of the Merlin engined models in favor of pure speed. 2) Not mentioned is the Mk VIII, which was supposed to replace the Mk V. In the event the MkIX was bodged together with a Mk VIII engine and a Mk V airframe. Used in the Middle and Far East, there are those that claim the Mk VIII was the ultimate Merlin engined Spit. 3) Augmenting the Mark IX was the Packard Merlin powered Mk XVI, essentially a Mk IX with an American engine (which differed enough from Rolls built engines to make a new Mark number appropriate) 4) The RN's Seafires were great fighters, but not great carrier fighters. The weak fuselage was known to break apart when the arrester hook caught the wire and the weak undercarriage to collapse under the impact of a carrier landing. The narrow landing gear led to problems in carrier landings and the long nose obscured vision on approach. It had the ditching qualities of a submarine. The American supplied Hellcats and Corsairs along with the postwar Sea Furies were much better carrier fighters as they had been designed for the job.
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