Hello,

       Early versions of the Mk I had a wooden fixed pitch prop and the later ones had a metal two-position constant speed three bladed prop. I have looked in all of my reference books including my Spitfire Pilot's Manual and can find no mention of a variable pitch constant speed prop, even in the later marks. Does anyone know if any of the Spitfire marks had a variable pitch prop with a CSU? Or does the prop control on the quadrant only have two settings that control coarse and fine pitch. Thanks to all who can help.

              NavyAce

 

From inception the Spitfire was continually being modified, even within particular marks, looking for improved performance, but also through having to make use of available parts.

As a young child I could still watch real Spitfires flying, but was obviously too young then to understand technical specs. By the time I joined the RAF they were gone, and although older colleagues had flown them and we talked about performance, i can't recall discussing the propellors.

However, during and just after the war a whole series of black and white films were made about the Battle of Britain, using real aircraft. The films made several references to selecting coarse or fine pitch, So it definitely suggests a manual selection on the very early marks. Confirmed in the film 'Angels One Five'  which featured a new pilot, during the Battle of Britain, trying and failing to take off, having forgotten to select fine pitch. Apparently this had happened for real.

 

There were three basic types of propeller used on Spitfires throughout their production. Prototypes and early production models used a fixed pitch wooden propeller which produced tremendous torque and the throttle was constantly required to control RPM. The problem with this propeller was that it was not optimized tor take-off or cruise.  Early MK1 models used a two position metal bladed propeller, position #1 fine pitch for take-off, position #2 coarse pitch for cruise, again throttle was required to be constantly used to control RPM. All later marks used a constant speed propeller which had a variable pitch unit that the pilot could set and it would keep the required RPM during take off #1 and Cruise, the pilot could set  the control (prop lever) to the required RPM and the constant speed unit would maintain that RPM in climb, cruise or a dive. Later marks of Spitfire used a composite wood type propeller, this mostly saved the engine during propeller contact with the ground. It is an irony that the only place the propeller is made today is Germany by Hoffman.

Hope this helps.