page_title: Aerial reconnaissance
section_title: High-speed reconnaissance aircraft
hierarchical_section_title: Aerial reconnaissance / History / World War II / High-speed reconnaissance aircraft
caption_attribution_description: English: Sidney Cotton's Lockheed 12A used by him postwar
context_page_description: Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of imagery intelligence, and the observation of enemy maneuvers.
context_section_description: In 1928, the RAF developed an electric heating system for the aerial camera. This allowed reconnaissance aircraft to take pictures from very high altitudes without the camera parts freezing. In 1939 Sidney Cotton and Flying Officer Maurice Longbottom of the RAF suggested that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception. Although this may perhaps seem obvious today with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking.
  Cotton and Longbottom proposed the use of Spitfires with their armament and radios removed and replaced with extra fuel and cameras. This led to the development of the Spitfire PR variants. These planes had a maximum speed of 396 mph at 30,000 feet with their armaments removed, and were used for photo-reconnaissance missions. The aircraft were fitted with five cameras which were heated to ensure good results (while the cockpit was not). Spitfires proved to be extremely successful in their reconnaissance role and many Spitfire variants were built specifically for that purpose. They served initially with what later became No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU).
  Other fighters were also adapted for photo-reconnaissance, including the British Mosquito and the American P-38 Lightning and P-51 Mustang. Such craft were painted in PRU Blue or Pink camouflage colours to make them difficult to spot in the air, and often were stripped of weapons or had engines modified for better performance at high altitudes (over 40,000 feet).
  The American F-4, a factory modification of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, replaced the nose-mounted four machine guns and cannon with four high-quality K-17 cameras. Approximately 120 F-4 and F-4As were hurriedly made available by March 1942, reaching the 8th Photographic Squadron in Australia by April (the first P-38s to see action). The F-4 had an early advantage of long range and high speed combined with ability to fly at high altitude; a potent combination for reconnaissance. In the last half of 1942 Lockheed would produce 96 F-5As, based on the P-38G with all later P-38 photo-reconnaissance variants designated F-5. In its reconnaissance role the Lightning was so effective that over 1,200 F-4 and F-5 variants were delivered by Lockheed, and it was the USAAF's primary photo-reconnaissance type used throughout the war in all combat theatres. The Mustang F-6 arrived later in the war and by spring 1945 became the dominant reconnaissance type flown by the USAAF in Europe. American photo-reconnaissance operations in Europe were based at RAF Mount Farm, with the resulting photographs transferred to Medmenham for interpretation. Approximately 15,000 Fairchild K-20 aerial cameras were manufactured for use in Allied reconnaissance aircraft between 1941 and 1945.
  The RAF's Mosquito excelled in the photo-reconnaissance role; the converted bomber was fitted with three cameras installed in what had been the bomb bay. It had a cruising speed of 255 mph, maximum speed of 362 mph and a maximum altitude of 35,000 feet. The first converted PRU (Photo-Reconnaissance Unit) Mosquito was delivered to RAF Benson in July 1941 by Geoffrey de Havilland himself. The PR Mk XVI and later variants had pressurized cockpits and also pressurized central and inner wing tanks to reduce fuel vaporization at high altitude. The Mosquito was faster than most enemy fighters above 40,000 ft, and could roam almost anywhere. Colonel Roy M. Stanley II, USAF (RET) wrote; "I consider the Mosquito the best photo reconnaissance aircraft of the war". The USAAF designation for the photo-reconnaissance Mosquito was F-8.
  Apart from (for example) the Mosquito, most World War II bombers were not as fast as fighters, although they were effective for aerial reconnaissance due to their long range, inherent stability in flight and capacity to carry large camera payloads. American bombers with top speeds of less than 300 mph used for reconnaissance include the B-24 Libe
caption: Sidney Cotton's Lockheed 12A, in which he made a high-speed reconnaissance flight in 1940.
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