Without a doubt the most iconic British aircraft of World War II, and one of the most famous of all aircraft, the Supermarine Spitfire was designed by the famed R.J. Mitchell in response to the British Air Ministry’s specification for a short-range interceptor. His original design was poor and lost to the Gloster Gladiator biplane, so Mitchell went back to the drawing board, designing a narrow-fuselaged, elliptical-winged, enclosed-cockpit monoplane fighter, the Supermarine Type 300. Mitchell drew on inspiration from Supermarine’s successful Thompson Trophy racing floatplanes, and the Type 300 was one of the first designs to use the Rolls-Royce Merlin, arguably the best inline piston engine ever developed. The Air Ministry was so impressed with Mitchell’s design that it wrote a new specification specifically so the Royal Air Force would be able to buy it.
The first Spitfire flew in March 1936. Other than a few minor problems, testing went smoothly and the Spitfire I entered production in June. It was nearly cancelled in 1938 due to Supermarine being unable to fill orders fast enough, but the problem was rectified by the Air Ministry building a factory at taxpayer expense solely for Spitfire production, for World War II was on the horizon. Even this was not enough: the Spitfire, though fairly easy to fly and very responsive, was difficult to build due to its thin fuselage and all-metal construction.
At war’s beginning, the Spitfire equipped about a third of RAF Fighter Command, with the older Hawker Hurricane in larger numbers. The Spitfire scored its first kills over German bombers not long after the beginning of the war, though it would not be until the Dunkirk evacuation that Spitfires would meet the Luftwaffe in large-scale combat. It would be during the Battle of Britain that the Spitfire would achieve eternal fame. Though the Hurricane actually scored more kills and was considered the more stable gun platform, the Spitfire was the first Allied fighter plane that could take on the Messerschmitt Bf 109 with even odds; indeed, the two rivals were almost perfectly matched, with the Spitfire better in a turning fight and the Bf 109 better in the vertical. Spitfire pilots began to rapidly become aces, with the highest scorers including Robert S. Tuck, Alan Deere, Adolph “Sailor” Malan, and Douglas Bader—the latter of which flew with artificial legs. Spitfire production took priority over everything else, with subassembly being done by British car companies and even garages; at one point, due to a demand by Winston Churchill for aircraft needed by the American volunteer Eagle Squadrons, Supermarine produced twelve Spitfires in a single night. The Germans gained a respect for the nimble “Spit”: during the Battle of Britain, German ace Adolf Galland once asked (albeit sarcastically) Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering for a squadron of them.
The Spitfire’s service only increased after the Battle of Britain, when it began to replace the Hurricane as Britain’s primary fighter. The limitations of the design began to show itself in 1941, however, as the RAF committed its Spitfire force to wasteful fighter sweeps over France: the Spitfire had been designed as a point-defense interceptor, and its lack of fuel meant that British pilots now faced the same problems the short-ranged Bf 109 had faced the year before over England. Another problem discovered during the Battle of Britain was that the Spitfire was incapable of entering a negative-G dive due to the design of its carburetor. Moreover, the Luftwaffe began to field the Focke-Wulf 190, which was superior to the Spitfire IIIs in service. Production switched to the improved Spitfire V with cannon armament—the rifle-caliber machine guns of the early Spitfires lacked hitting power—and later still the Spitfire IX, which mated the most powerful mark of the Merlin available to a flush-rivetted Spitfire airframe, giving pilots parity with the Fw 190A. These designs were to take the Spitfire to nearly the end of the war, and produce more aces, such as George Beurling, who savaged Italian fighters the equal of his Spitfire V over Malta, and James “Johnnie” Johnson, who would become the top scoring British ace of the war in a Spitfire IX.
The Spitfire would also see service in the Pacific, where it was initially inferior to the Japanese A6M Zero; introduction of the Spitfire IX also redressed the balance in this theater as well, and the late-model Spitfires were considered the equal of late war Japanese fighters. Spitfires also were modified into high-altitude interceptors, stripped-down photo-reconnaissance aircraft with larger wings and tails, and into the Seafire carrier-based fighter, though the latter was something of a failure. There were a bewildering amount of Spitfire variants, even within some “standard” variants: for instance, the Spitfire IX had three different wing types available with different armament, from all light .303 caliber machine guns, to mixed 20mm cannon and .303s, to two 20mm cannon and two American .50 caliber machine guns.
The Spitfire was the only British fighter that remained in production during every day of World War II, and it remained so after the war as well. As the Merlin had reached the limits of its design, the Spitfire was adapted to take the more powerful Griffon engine. These were used as frontline fighters until 1954, seeing action over Malaya, while Fleet Air Arm Griffon-powered Seafires were used briefly over Korea. Photo-reconnaissance Spitfires were the final Spitfires to remain in RAF service, with the last official sortie in April 1957. Spitfires had also seen combat with Israel during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, and the Suez War of 1956. Of 20,351 Spitfires produced in 24 separate marks, today about 75 remain, with two-thirds of that number flyable.
This is not a real Spitfire, but a very accurate nonflyable replica, built for the Pueblo Weisbrod Air Museum. It is painted as a Spitfire IA, K9795, of 19 Squadron, based at RAF Duxford during the Battle of Britain. The museum has set up a vignette of the pilot getting some last minute instructions before going up on patrol. The real K9795 met an ignominious end: while in pursuit of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 over Dover on 13 July 1940, it was shot down by friendly fire, as ground flak was shooting at the Bf 109 at the same time. Luckily, the pilot, Sgt. Arthur Binham, was able to bail out safely.
I saw this replica being worked on last year at Pueblo Weisbrod, so it was great to see it finished. Hard to believe this isn't a real Spitfire!
