Again, the Spiteful never saw squadron service and I need to check my
Geoffrey Quill, but I THINK that it was felt that in service t would not
offer a worthwhile performance advantage over later marks of Spitfire.
So can I suggest splitting the question - one which has always puzzled me -
into two: fastest piston engined aircraft IN SERVICE during the Second World
War, and fastest piston engined aircraft PROTOTYPE TO FLY during the Second
World War?
If it is possible to get authoritative performance statistics then I could
revise from my Trevor Thom and use my whizz-wheel to try to adjust for
altitude, i.e., normalise to sea-level or to, say, 20,000 ft. I'd also like
to see these figures in knots rather than mph.
So, which aircraft should feature on the 'in-service' shortlist? I guess:
P47, P51, TA152, (not sure which variants) Tempest V, Spitfire Mk14 (were there faster marks in service before War's end?)