Originally Posted by
FlightlessParrot
The article seems to suggest that there was some kind of failure in not developing a long-range Spitfire, but I wonder if that was ever a realistic proposition.
The Spitfire was never going to be developed into a long range fighter - it just could not carry enough fuel.The P51 was a Dog to fly with the rear fuselage tank filled,the Spitfire would have been even worse to fly with its rear fuselage tank full,but even with the rear tank full on a Spitfire Mk9 it still could only carry just over half the fuel load of a P51D.
P51 D - 180 USG (wing/main) + 85 USG (rear fuse) + 220 USG (drops) = 485 USG = 404 imp Gallons
Spitfire Mk9 - 96gal (main) +75 gal (rear fuse) + 45gal (drop) = 216 imp gallons