I have an ongoing debate with a friend of mine on this topic. Steven is Team Mustang, he believes it is a more reliable and powerful aircraft (he is an aircraft engineer so his reasons make sense). I believe the Spitfire was more capable as a fighter and holds more significance in aviation history than the Mustang (I also grew up in the UK so please read a LOT of bias in my opinion).
It’s important to note that myself or Steven have neither flown in a Spitfire nor a Mustang (but are very open to offers), but as with most aviators we nevertheless have strong opinions on the subject.
Let’s get quantitative for a moment – here are some performance stats of the two aircraft:
| SPITFIRE | MUSTANG | |
|---|---|---|
| Max takeoff weight | 6,700 lb / 3,039 kg | 12,100 lb / 5,490 kg |
| Cruise speed | 272 mph / 237 kts | 362 mph / 315 kts |
| Max rate of climb | 2,600 ft/min | 3,200 ft/min |
| Service ceiling | 36,500 ft | 41,900 ft |
| Range (approx) | 430mm | 1,400nm |
Based on those numbers you could say the Spitfire was slower, couldn’t carry as much, ran out of fuel faster, and would therefore be outperformed by the Mustang every time. But pilots who have flown the Spitfire tell of how agile it was, and that whilst it may not go as high, nor as fast, it could out-manoeuvre the Mustang in a head to head battle any day of the week.
My favourite part of this debate though is eventually we both come around to finding reasons to like each other’s preferred aircraft. Steven will admit the Spitfire was a deadly combatant in the Battle of Britain and I will watch the Mustang display at airshows and realise what a wonderful aircraft it really is.
The truth is there is no “better” aircraft out of the two, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a favourite. I like having a strong opinion, but holding on to it loosely. I think that’s our job as aviators, to use all the available information to make a decision rather than thinking we’re right all the time. Because we’re not!
I ran a quick poll on Instagram to ask the audience what they thought, I haven’t shown this to Steven yet…
During WW2 my father flew Spitfire Vs initially with the RAF ( 130Sqn ) in the UK then in the India/ Burma campaign ( 615 sqn. After two tours he returned to Australia and was assigned to 79 Sqn ( RAAF )- Spitfire VIIIs and sent to Morotai to prepare and assist with the invasion of Japan. Some big bombs put a stop to that. Thought the Mk VIII an absolute gem.
The Spitfire was designed to be a close range, high altitude interceptor. Makes sense as the UK is rather close to Europe.
The Mustangs original power plant was a V12 Allison engine and the aircraft didn’t set the world on fire. Then some bright spark came up with ifea of swapping the Allison engine witha RollsRoyce Merlin. Result- Magic happens!
As to which is a better beast ? Depends on the task. Still, the Americans loved the Spit.
It would have been interesting to see how the Spitfire VIII performed against the Focke-Wulf Ta 152. On paper the Ta 152 is superior- but in combat? who knows?