1936 SPITFIRE 2006
(70 YEARS IN FLIGHT)
The prototype Spitfire (K5054) was flown on its maiden flight in March 1936 from Eastleigh Airfield, now Southampton Airport. Records disagree on the exact date of that first flight; 5 th March is generally thought to be the date for the maiden flight but Jeffrey Quill, the famous Spitfire test pilot is adamant in his autobiography (‘Spitfire – A Test Pilot’s Story’) that the first flight took place on 6 th March 1936 and he flew the company’s then Chief Test Pilot ‘Mutt’ Summers from Martlesham to Eastleigh in a Miles Falcon for the purpose. Whatever the exact date of the first flight, this year, 2006, sees the 70 th anniversary of the Spitfire in flight.
The BBMF is proud to be the operator of five airworthy Spitfires ranging from a 1940 Mk IIa, through a 1941 Mk Vb and a 1944 Mk LFIXe up to its two 1945-built, Griffon-powered PRXIX Spitfires. Seventy years from its first flight the beautiful shape and evocative sound of a Spitfire can still be seen and heard in the skies above Britain and we are all reminded of the war-winning, world-changing role it played in history. The Spitfire truly deserves its place as probably the most successful fighter design ever, and certainly as the most famous and charismatic of all time.
The Spitfire design can be traced from a line of successful high-speed floatplanes, designed by R J Mitchell and developed for the international Schneider Trophy races. These aircraft established various speed records, the S.6B being the first aircraft to fly at more than 400mph in September 1936, eventually winning the Schneider Trophy outright for Britain after three consecutive victories. In November 1934, the Board of Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd authorised Mitchell to proceed, as a private venture, with an entirely new fighter design to be powered by the Rolls Royce PV12 engine (later to become the Merlin). This aircraft was to become the Spitfire. When this name was accepted for the new fighter by the Air Ministry, Jeffrey Quill heard its designer, RJ Mitchell, comment, "It’s just the sort of bloody silly name they would give it"!
• K5054, the prototype Spitfire was written off in a landing accident on 4 th September 1939, after several previous close shaves. The pilot, Flt Lt ‘Spinner’ White died in hospital four days later from severe neck injuries.
• The prototype Spitfire cost the British taxpayer £15,776. Rarely has government money been better spent.
• The first production Spitfire (K9787) made her first flight in May 1938. After serving for 2 years in a trial capacity, this aircraft was converted into a PR1C and served with a Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. She failed to return from a mission in June 1941.
• Spitfire Mk 1s entered RAF service , with N o 19(F) Squadron at Duxford, in August 1938. The first Spitfire to be delivered was the third production aircraft, K9787; this aircraft survived the war, eventually being grounded and sent to a technical training school as a training airframe in late 1944.
• At the Outbreak of World War Two (3 rd September 1939), 187 Spitfire aircraft were on the strength of operational RAF squadrons.
• The first time that Spitfires fired their guns in anger it was an ‘own goal’. During the so-called ‘Battle of Barking Creek’ on 6 th September 1939, a fault at the Chain Home Radar station at Canewdon in Essex caused aircraft airborne to the West of the station to appear as if they were to the East. In the ensuing chaos, Spitfires of 74 Squadron ‘bounced’ Hurricanes of 56 Squadron and shot down two of them. Subsequently, the provision of IFF radar identification equipment became a top priority for RAF fighters.
• Spitfires first encountered enemy aircraft on 16 th October 1939, when Nos 602 and 603 Squadrons engaged nine Junkers 88 bombers that were attacking RN warships in the Forth of Firth. Flt Lt Pat Gifford of N o 603 Squadron shot down one bomber and two 602 Squadron pilots shared in the destruction of another. A further Ju 88 was damaged.
• When the Battle of Britain opened , on 1 st July 1940, nineteen out of fifty single-seat fighter squadrons in RAF Fighter Command were equipped with Spitfires. These units had a total strength of 292 Spitfires, of which 199 (65%) were serviceable.
• The Spitfire with the shortest service life was probably X4110. Delivered as a replacement aircraft to N o 602 Squadron at Westhampnett on the morning of 18 th August 1940, she was flown in action by Flt Lt Dunlop Urie a couple of hours later and suffered severe damage in combat with ME Bf109s. Urie landed the aircraft but her back was broken and she never flew again.
• The top scoring Fighter Command unit during the Battle of Britain was N o 603 (Royal Auxiliary Air Force, City of Edinburgh) Squadron, operating Spitfires. After moving to Hornchurch at the end of August 1940, the squadron was in action almost continuously and scored 57 victories during the Battle. Its ranks included a number of highly effective pilots including Brian Carbury, ‘Razz’ Berry, ‘Stapme’ Stapleton and its commander George Denholm. (The BBMF Mk IIa Spitfire, P7350, today flies in the colours of the Commanding Officer of 603 Squadron, Sqn Ldr ‘Uncle’ George Denholm).
• The nineteen Spitfire squadrons operating during the Battle of Britain are credited by recent research with 521 victories (an average of just over 27 per squadron) and a victory-to-loss ratio of 1.8. In comparison, the thirty fully engaged Hurricane squadrons are credited with 655 victories (an average of just under 22 per squadron) and with a victory-to-loss ratio of 1.34.
• The longest distance flown during an operational mission by a Spitfire was possibly by a PR 1D flown by Fl Lt David Salway on 23 rd September 1941. He flew from Benson to Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland) and back, to photograph the new German battleship Tirpitz. In the course of that 7 hour mission, he covered a distance of about 1,500 miles.
• The first Spitfire fighter-bomber missions took place in August 1942 . N o 126 Squadron, operating Mk V Spitfires out of Luqa, on Malta, dropped 250-lb bombs during attacks on targets in Sicily. The Spitfire became a successful fighter-bomber, carrying up to a 1,000-lb bomb load. (The BBMF Spitfire Mk LFIXe, MK356, was used for fighter bomber missions, as well as fighter sweep missions, during the build-up to the invasion of Normandy (D-Day) in 1944).
• The largest number of Spitfires lost in a single day was on 19 th August 1942, during the operations in support of landings at Dieppe – 62 Spitfires were lost out of 100 Allied aircraft lost in total. (The BBMF Mk Vb Spitfire, AB910, flew 4 sorties in support of the Dieppe raid on 19 th August 1942, her pilots destroying one Do 217 and damaging another during the day).
• The most successful Spitfire , in terms of enemy aircraft shot down, was probably Mk IX EN398, the personal aircraft of Wg Cdr ‘Johnnie’ Johnson who commanded the Canadian Wing based at Kenley during the spring and summer of 1943. During his 6-month tour, Johnson shot down 12 enemy aircraft, shared in the destruction of 5 more and damaged a further 7, whilst flying EN398. In addition, Sqn Ldr Robert McNair shot down a Fw190 in EN398 on 20 th June 1943. Adding up the half shares into victories, EN398 can be credited with the destruction of 15 enemy aircraft and causing damage to 7 more. She never suffered a scratch in combat.
• The role executed by the Spitfire that was probably furthest from its designer’s mind was that of anti-submarine warfare. During April 1945, N o 91 Squadron, the first unit to receive Spitfire Mk 21s, began operations with the new variant from Ludham in Norfolk. The unit flew armed reconnaissance missions over Holland, keeping a special watch for German one-man midget submarines which at that time were active off the coast. On the morning of 26 th April 1945, Flt Lts Marshall and Draper caught one of these craft on the surface near the shore; they attacked it and sank it with cannon fire.
• The largest foreign user of Spitfires during the Second World War was the Soviet Air Force, which received a total of 1330 Spitfires Mks V and IX during the war.
• The total number of operational sorties flown by RAF Spitfires during WWII was 835,000. Spitfires fought in virtually every operational theatre of the War and in many varied roles.
• The last Spitfires to venture over hostile territory were used in the clandestine operations to photograph targets in the People’s Republic of China during 1951 and 1952. These missions were flown by PRXIXs of N o 81 Squadron from Kai Tak, Hong Kong.
• The last operational sortie by an RAF Spitfire took place on 1 st April 1954 when a PRXIX of 81 Squadron, PS888, based at Seletar, Singapore, flew a photographic mission over an area of jungle in Johore thought to contain communist guerrillas. Spitfires, therefore, completed 15½ years of front-line service with the RAF. (The BBMF’s PRXIX Spitfire PS915, now flies in the colour scheme worn by PS888 in 1954, complete with ‘The Last’ on the port engine cowling).
• Produced in greater numbers than any other British combat aircraft before or since the War, 20,341 Spitfires were built in 22 different variants (plus 2,408 Seafires – the navalised versions) and the aircraft remained in production for 12 years. Only one other aircraft in the world has ever been produced in greater numbers – the Spitfire’s old enemy – the German ME Bf109.
• The top speed of the Spitfire was gradually increased from the prototype’s 349 mph up to 460 mph for the fastest version – the PR XIX. ( BBMF operates two Spitfire PR XIXs).
• At the end of its development the Spitfire carried an engine producing more than twice the power of the original, its maximum take-off weight and rate of climb had more than doubled, its firepower had increased by a factor of five and its maximum speed had been increased by a third; all this in essentially the same airframe.
