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Type: Fighter bomber
Country of origin: Great Britain
Performance:
Speed 650 km/h;
Range 1575 km.
Israel's first two spitfires arrived from unlikely
sources: one was reconstructed from damaged aircraft abandoned by the British,
the second was rebuilt from an Egyptian plane that was downed while strafing
Tel-Aviv on May 15, 1948. Fifty Czech Spits were purchased and ferried
to Israel in '48 in an operation called "Velveta". They provided the first
real fighter strength, tallying 11 victories without loss. Ninety Spits
served as the backbone of the IAF through the early fifties. The last aircraft,
"The Black Spit" was preserved on the initiative of Ezer Weizman, the rest
were sold to Burma.
