These are apparently the Griffon-engined Mark-16 Spitfires. One HOT aircraft! Lightweight, big elliptical wing, 2,050 HP, leading edge cuffs. Might also have had the five-blade propeller, I'm not sure. Max speed 448 MPH at 8,000 feet in level flight (that's faster than a P-51 Mustang).
The Brits used them to chase down the unmanned German jet-powered V-1 buzz bombs, and knock them down by slipping the Spitfire's wingtip under the wingtip of the buzz bomb, then banking quickly and flipping the buzz bomb over, upsetting its guidance system and making it go out of control and crash, hopefully in an open field somewhere. They didn't like to shoot them down, because the explosion of the V1's huge warhead could damage the Spitfire.
I wouldn't mind having one of those parked in the hangar next to the Cessna 175. Never mind that the fuel needed just to START that Griffon engine would fill the Cessna's tanks to the brim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire
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