Joe D.
Posts: 4004
Joined: 8/31/2005 From: Stratford, Connecticut Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JeffK I think that over 24,000 Vickers Supermarine Spitfires were built, maybe a small number of these post war, as for flown by a variety of nations, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark?, France, Belgium, Poland, USA, USSR, India, Sth Africa, Yugoslavia, Italy? plus a myriad of Nations postwar, maybe the Mustang could have been flown by a similar number of Nations. Re my aformentioned source, 20,000 Spitfires (all variants) were made between 1936 and 1948, of which more than 200 still survive and about 50 are airworthy, some operating as flying memorials for the Battle of Britain. Post war, Burma, Egypt, France, India, Israel and the Netherlands all flew the Spitfire "in anger" during the 50's. I tallied about one dozen nations that used the 109 -- some in very small numbers -- during WW II, not counting captured 109s by the USSR, France and the UK. It would be interesting to compare and contrast the careers of the Spitfire and 109, although the latter's was cut short.
< Message edited by Joe D. -- 11/26/2007 4:28:38 PM >
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Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A. "The Angel of Okinawa" Home of the Chance-Vought Corsair, F4U The best fighter-bomber of World War II
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