Smile for the camera x3

Sorry for the low quality, but remember that i lose the sun light very early at this time of the year =3 so HAD to be interior photos

info took from internet ;3

The Mk XIX was the last and most successful photographic reconnaissance variant of the Spitfire. It combined features of the Mk XI with the Griffon engine of the Mk XIV. After the first 25 (type 389s) were produced, later aircraft were also fitted with the pressurised cabin of the Mk X and the fuel capacity was increased to 256 gallons, three-and-a-half times that of the original Spitfire This version was the type 390. The first Mk XIXs entered service in May 1944, and by the end of the war the type had virtually replaced the earlier Mk XI. A total of 225 were built with production ceasing in early 1946, but they were used in front line RAF service until April 1954.

In 1951, Hainan Island was targeted at the behest of U.S. Naval Intelligence for RAF overflights, using Spitfire PR Mk 19s based at Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. The last operational sortie by a Mk 19 was in 1963 when one was used in battle trials against an English Electric  Lightining to determine how best a Lightning should engage piston-engined aircraft. This information was needed in case RAF Lightnings might have to engage P-51 Mustang in the Indonesian conflict of the time.


^{The Mk XIX was unarmed and could carry two vertical cameras and/or one oblique camera in a heated compartment aft of the cockpit. It had a top speed of 716 km/h, a cruising speed of 430 km/h and a ceiling of about 13000 metres. With an external auxiliary tank, the total fuel capacity was 1563 litres and top range 2250 kilometres. The cockpit was pressurised with the aid of an engine-driven blower.}

In 1945, the Swedish Air Force had a pressing need for a single-seat reconnaissance plane. As a stop-gap measure, a number of obsolete J9 fighters (Seversky P-35A) were converted and transferred to the F11 reconnaissance wing at Skavsta in Nyköping.

In 1948, the cold war prompted an urgent upgrade of the Swedish AF, but the planned PR version of Sweden’s indigenous swept-wing jet fighter, the SAAB J29 ’Flying Barrel’, was delayed since the fighter version had priority.

As an interim solution, in 1948 a total of 50 surplus PR Mk XIX Spitfires were bought from England at a bargain price and assigned to the F11 wing with the Swedish designation S31. The recce wing was thus equipped with a plane which flew faster and higher than any of the Swedish AF fighters in service at the time. The S31 was instrumental in developing new AF reconnaissance tactics.

The last S31 was retired from Swedish service in August of 1955 and, in an act of bureaucratic vandalism, every single Spitfire was either scrapped, used for target practice or relegated to fire fighting drills. Still, an immaculate S31 in Swedish colours is currently on display in the Swedish Air Force Museum at Malmen near Linköping.

Here you can see and hear it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlIGQ6…