Airport Press - Newspaper Serving New York Airports

The winner of August Name that Plane is Lt. Dan Carbonaro of the JFK Port Authority Police and here is Dan's winning entry:
The aircraft in the July issue of the Airport Press is the SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE MK. IX "SEAPLANE". The Spitfire Mk IX was originally developed as a stopgap measure as a response to the appearance of the Focke- Wulf FW 190A. The first response to this threat was the Mk VIII, but this aircraft involved a significant redesign of the basic Spitfire, and would take time to produce in the numbers required. The Mk IX provided an alternative solution to the problem. This allowed for rapid development and production of the new model. Work on fitting the more power Merlin 61 with its two-stage supercharger had begun in the summer of 1941, and on 27 September Spitfire N3297 (the only Mk III Spitfire built) flew for the first time. Three marks of Spitfire would be developed from this experimental aircraft. The Mk VII and Mk VIII would use a redesigned fuselage, and this meant that they would take too long to produce. The crisis was so serious that the RAF was forced to stop all but the most important daytime operations over occupied Europe in November 1941. When operations were resumed again, between March and June 1942, loses were unacceptably heavy, and had to be stopped again. Work began with great urgency on an interim Spitfire. The aim was to fit the Merlin 61 engine to a Mk V fuselage while making as few changes as possible. The first test aircraft flew on 26 February 1942. The majority of Mk IXs of all types used the standard "c" wing, which could carry four 20mm cannon or two 20mm cannon and four .303in machine guns. From 1944 some were built with the "e" wing, which replaced the four .303in machine guns with two .50in heavy machine guns. The Mk IX was produced in greater numbers than any other type of Spitfire. 284 were converted from older versions, 557 built by Supermarine around Southampton, and another 5117 at Castle Bromwich. The Aircraft in the Airport Press photo is of the only prototype Spitfire MK. IX Seaplane Serial # MJ892 which was built in 1943. This floatplane version with a top speed of 607km/h was the fastest float seaplane of World War II but its further development was abandoned early in 1944. The above photo is of the sole Spitfire MK.IX seaplane flight testing at Beaumaris, Wales in mid 1944. Other correct entries were received from: Armando R. Carvallo, Griffin Security at AA, JFK, Jon Hjelm of the FAA in Garden City, and Ed Sullivan.