Supermarine Spitfire

      The Supermarine Spitfire was designed for an Air Ministry contract by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works. The first prototype flew on March 5th, 1936, and the first production model entered service in 1938.  The Spitfire served a large role in the 1940 Battle of Britain, and would go on to see extensive development. The Spitfire saw combat in North Africa, over Britain, in the Pacific with the Australians, and in the skies above Russia. The Spitfire accounted for 20,341 of the combat aircraft constructed by Britain during World War II, more than any other in British history.

    Mitchell's initial design for the Spitfire was robust, and over time proved immensely adaptable. Initially powered by a V-12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine capable of producing 1,030 horsepower, late-war variants of the Spitfire were powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, producing up to 2,340 horsepower. The airframe was slim and lightweight, but had little room for fuel capacity. The power and weight combined allowed the Spitfire to achieve tremendous climb rates, but curtailed its range. It had relatively thin elliptical wings, which the designers determined to have the least drag for the most lift. Its wings resulted in slightly unstable flight, but the wing design also resulted in pilots having a stall warning. When the aircraft began to stall, the air would pass unevenly over the wing root and wing tip, which caused the aircraft to shake violently. This meant that even newer pilots could get a lot of performance out of the aircraft as long as they backed off when it began to shake.

    The Spitfire's armament shifted several times over its service life. The original Air Ministry contract called for a fighter with eight .303 caliber Browning machine guns, similar to the Hawker Hurricane. Early Spitfire variants stuck to this, but it was quickly discovered that the guns were inefficient when attacking hostile bombers and larger aircraft. To remedy this, a variant was developed that traded all of its machine guns for a total of four Hispano cannons, two in each wing. Unfortunately, the Hispanos initially proved rather unreliable. The cannons were mounted in Spitfires sideways to fit inside the thin wing, and its 60-round feed drums were prone to jamming because of this. Before the cannons were improved, pilots came to prefer an in-between solution. Supermarine provided another design that traded one of the pairs of 20mm Hispano cannons for four .303 caliber Brownings, which were much more consistent. The Spitfire was mostly kept to the fighter and interception role, as its light weight and low fuel capacity meant it could only carry small bombs, and had no loitering capability.

    The Spitfire was developed into all sorts of roles. From patrol to reconnaissance, from air interception to carrier operations, the Spitfire took to each role naturally. Here's a picture of a Spitfire Mk. Vc from the National Museum of the USAF! I also retrieved a quick recording of a Spitfire Mk. IX starting its engine!


Supermarine Spitfire at the National Museum of the USAF





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