Name This...(270)

[Brady]

???

[Alikchi2]

RNZAF Spitfire?

[freeboy]

cockpit doesn't quit look right for a spit, maybe a hurricane? I always get hurrican and typhoon confused, is it a typhoon, how mnany guessees do I get?

[Marten]

oh please... it is spitfire. my guess is that it's mk IX.

[khelvan]

Definitely a Spitfire - it appears to be either a Mk. VII, VIII, or IX with a Merlin engine. However, only Mk. VIIIs were assigned to Air Command, Southeast Asia so that is my guess. Though the roundel is unfamiliar to me...maybe RNZAF, or perhaps an over-painted RAF...if RNZAF I don't know which variants they utilized...

[bbbf]

RNZAF didn't ever have Spits.

My research says this could actually be a Seafire Mk.XV.

A damaged Seafire was left with the RNZN in 1947 after a British carrier visit. It was left at HMNZS Tamaki training station, which would explain the Sea Cadets.

[bbbf]

Actually it's probably a Seafire III.

[Greyshaft]

ORIGINAL: bbbf

Actually it's probably a Seafire III.

I'd go with the Seafire theory... the undercart (what little we can see) looks a little more robust than the average Spit.

The other half of the phote would let us look for an arrestor hook but...

if we had eggs we ccould have ham and eggs if only we had some ham

[MikeH1952]

I agree, I think it's a Seafire. I cannot see folding wings, so I'll guess at a MkIIc.

[steveh11Matrix]

Definitely Spit/Seafire, and a 'C' wing. I too was looking desperately for an arrestor hook! [;)] The rear fuselage just abaft the cockbit looks a little...well, odd, if you ask me.

Steve.

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: Greyshaft

ORIGINAL: bbbf

Actually it's probably a Seafire III.

I'd go with the Seafire theory... the undercart (what little we can see) looks a little more robust than the average Spit.

The other half of the phote would let us look for an arrestor hook but...

if we had eggs we ccould have ham and eggs if only we had some ham

The right half of the photo is there - just scroll over to it. (What's there doesn't look like a wheel to me.)

Dave Baranyi

[steveh11Matrix]

I think the tailwheel is just half-hidden by the leg of the rear-most man.

The arrestor hook, if present, would be underneath the fuselage. I can't quite make out if it's there or not...

[m10bob]

After mark V,they had 4 bladed props(as shown),and the mark 8 had more expaust ports than shown,so I believe it's a Seafire,or a mark between a V and an 8..
Whoever thought it was a "Hurri" must be an AA gunner![;)]

[khelvan]

It can't be a Mk. XV or the later Spits, they had 5-bladed props...

Edit: Nevermind, whoever posted Seafire was right, that is definitely the Seafire roundel...and it looks like a Seafire Mk. XV, I was wrong on the number of props...The Seafire Mk. XV had a Griffon engine though, not a Merlin. Hmm.

No. 806 Sqn. sailed for the region in April 1946, joining the HMS Glory, but they had Glory's 'Y' deck code on the tail.

It might be No. 801 Sqn, Australia, re-equipped with Seafire Mk. XVs in September 1945...

[RevRick]

Doesn't the nose look a little square for a Merlin engined Spit variant. Looks like a bit of a squaring at the edges - which if my rapidly aging memory serves (something seemed to click when I read the Griffon idea, but it may only have been my ears clearing), was something of note in the Griffon engined versions.

[bbbf]

A Mk XV it could well be, if it is the RNZN one. It was donated in 1947.

I don't know enough to tell, at least from this photo.

[Brady]

SEAFIRE LF. III, it is[:)]