Supermarine
Spitfire

The Spitfire was designed by Reginald Mitchell and his team at the Supermarine factory in Southampton. Mitchell was famous for building high speed racing floatplanes and won the 1929 and 1931 Schneider Trophies in the Supermarine S.6 and S.6B respectively. Later his creation went on to set a new World Air Speed record of 407mph (655kmh) which was quite an achievement as the fastest RAF fighter at the time was the Hawker Fury at 207mph (333kmh)

Air Vice Marshal Hugh Dowding realised the need for a new fighter for the RAF that would bridge the gap between the relatively slow biplane fighters and the Schneider Trophy racers. He was responsible for issuing the specifications for a new RAF fighter to aircraft manufacturers. In February 1934 Mitchell submitted his plans for the Supermarine Type 224 which proved to be a disaster. It could only achieve a top speed of 228mph (367kph). It's rate of climb was slow and was dogged by an over complicated cooling system

The winner of the competition was an entry from the Gloster company called the Gladiator. It had a maximum speed of 242mph (390kpm) and a rate of climb that was far superior to the Type 224. Mitchell went back to the drawing board and created a smaller, more streamlined fighter. The new 1,000 horse power V12 Rolls-Royce engine was chosen, later to be named the Merlin

Dowding was given the design details of the new Supermarine fighter and was impressed enough to issue an official RAF specification so that funding was made available to meet most of the cost of the prototype. The maiden flight of the new prototype F.37/34 was made on 5 March 1936 by chief test pilot 'Mutt' Summers at Eastleigh airport in Hampshire and bore the now famous serial number K5054. When Mitchell learned of the new name of 'Spitfire' that had been given to his creation, he was heard to say "It's the sort of bloody silly name they would give it!"

The new fighter reached a maximum speed of 349mph (562kph) in testing before being taken to Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich on 26 May 1936 for trials with the RAF. The trials went well and an order for 310 Spitfires was placed on 3 June 1936, long before any reports were completed and submitted to the Air Ministry. Sadly, only a year after the prototype flew Mitchell died from cancer, a condition he had been suffering from for a long time

By 3 September 1939 there were 2,160 planes on order and a total of 20,531 Spitfires and 2,594 Seafires (the naval version of the fighter) were produced. Spitfires took many roles including photo reconnaissance. After many tests it was established that pink was one of the best colours to paint aircraft for photographic missions at dawn and dusk. The last plane rolled off the production line in 1947 but stayed in service with various air forces around the world until 1955. The last unit to actively fly Spitfires was the Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force