Vickers - Supermarine Spitfire
British Fighter

The graceful lines of the British Spitfire were designed by Reginald J. Mitchell, whose seaplane racers of the 1920's laid the foundation for a new generation of military interceptor fighters. The first prototype built by Vickers-Supermarine in 1936 was powered by the new V-12 Rolls Royce engine of 1000 horsepower with a fixed pitch, two bladed, wooden propeller.

By the beginning of World War II in 1939, England had 306 early Mark II Spitfires in service. Air Marshal Hugh Dowding wisely held these aircraft in England during the fighting in France. When the Battle of Britain commenced in the skies of England in August 1940, it was these Spitfires and the Hawker Hurricanes that successfully protected the country from the German Luftwaffe. On August 20, 1940 when Winston Churchill spoke of these gallant pilots he said, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

With the introduction of the German Focke Wulf Fw-190 in 1941, English Fighter Command needed an improved version of their current Mark V Spitfire. The installation of the Merlin 61 engine of 1565 horsepower in the basic Mark Vb airframe provided an improved airplane able to counter the threat of this new German fighter. The Spitfire aircrafts were produced with different armaments in the wings and the 'e' wings each had a 20 mm cannon and a 0.5 inch machine gun. A total of 5,665 Mark IX Spitfires were built during the war at an approximate cost of £45,000 ($64,000) each.

The final Spitfires under construction in 1946 were Griffon powered Mark 24 aircraft that served with the RAF until 1951. They were finally replaced by the introduction of modern jet aircraft. In all, more than 20,400 Spitfires were built over eleven years of continuous construction. Today, almost all these aircraft have long ago been destroyed, with only several examples left in museums, and a few flying airplanes in England, America, and Australia.

View portion of a historic video that includes the Fighter Factory's Spitfire.

View the Fighter Factory's
Streaming Video of the Spitfire
(File size is 1.14 MB)

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