Exceptionally Plane People

1. Exceptionally Plane People

2. Noel Pemberton Billing Hubert Scott-Paine Commander James Bird

3. Supermarine Woolston

4. Satellite airfield at Eastleigh Main Supermarine factories at Woolston and Itchen

6. The Early Days 1928 Vickers -Supermarine formed USA wins 1923 & 1925 Schneider Trophy races R.J. Mitchell joins company AM spec F.7/30 released 1913 1916 1922 1927 1929 1931 Scott-Paine takes over Supermarine wins its first Schneider Trophy race Britain wins Schneider Trophy outright Supermarine formed

9. Napier Lion Engine – RAF Museum Hendon

10. Baby N.1B - 1918 Southampton - 1925 Walrus - 1933 Stranraer - 1937

11. Henri Biard – 1922 Schneider Trophy winner

12. Curtiss CR-3 Lt. Rittenhouse USN Schneider Trophy winner 1923

13. Supermarine S.4 – Napier Lion engine rated at 450HP Unbraced cantilevered wing – 1924 Scheider Trophy race Biard crashed before the race (Biard survived – airplane didn’t!)

14. 1925 Schneider Trophy winner Lt Jimmy Doolittle

15. Supermarine S.5 1927 Schneider Trophy Napier Lion engine – wire braced wing

16. Rolls-Royce “R” engine 2350 hp in 1931 versus 875 hp for Lion engine in 1927

17. S.5 S.4 S.6 S.6B

18. Air Ministry Specification F.7/30 “A fighter capable of at least 250 mph and armed with four machine guns” Supermarine Type 224 The winning “Gloster Gladiator”

19. R.J. Mitchell’s original conception and introduction of the Spitfire First production order 310 “Killer” fighter decision RJ dead at 42 Design refined 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 Spitfire first flight August 1938 first delivery 19 Sqn AM Spec F.37/34 released S224 first flight AM Spec 10/35 eight guns

20. “ ….. The (Vickers-Supermarine) design team would do better by devoting their time not to the official experimental fighter (i.e.F.7/30) but to a real killer fighter……my opposite number in Rolls-Royce…A.F Sidgreaves and I decided that our two companies should … finance … such an aircraft …… …. that in no circumstances would any technical member of the Air Ministry be consulted or allowed to interfere with the designer” Sir Robert McLean – Chairman Vickers Aviation Ltd.

21. A.F.Sidgreaves Sir Robert McLean Ernest Hives R.J. Mitchell Supermarine Type 300

22. F7/30 refined – Supermarine Drawing 30000 sheet 11 Dated September 1934 from Smith

23. Beverley Shenstone Canadian aerodynamicist Joined Vickers-Supermarine in 1932 Used Ludwig Prandtl’s theories of elliptic wing planforms in the Spitfire design Spitfire wings (NACA 2200 series) were VERY thin by comparison with conventional wisdom - 13% root T/C tapering to 6% T/C at tip

24. Alexander Lippisch

25. Ludwig Prandtl

26. Alan Clifton Structures

27. Joseph Smith (1897- 1956) Succeeded RJ as Chief Designer Maintained the same basic shape to the Spitfire while doubling the weight and power output from the engine. Took Supermarine technical community right through to the jet age

28. Joseph Smith’s Spitfire main spar construction

29. First Flight Day March 5, 1936

30. L-R “Mutt” Summers, “Agony” Payn, RJM, S. Scott-hall, Jeffrey Quill

31. Rolls-Royce Derby Supermarine Woolston

32. The Shadow Factory idea Sir Kingsley Wood -1938 Philip Cunliffe-Lister 1936 Castle Bromwich factory

33. Hillington shadow factory, Merlins Crewe shadow factory, Merlins Rolls-Royce Derby Castle Bromwich shadow factory, Spitfires Supermarine Woolston Manchester, shadow factory, (Ford), Merlins South Marston shadow factory, Spitfires

34. Shadow Factories – what were they? Shadow factory at Castle Bromwich

36. Hursley Park

37. 250 sub contractors were involved in the Spitfire by 1942. By end of 1944, Supermarine had 63 units, staffed by almost 10,000, half of them women, compared to 2500 at the beginning of the war. Propeller - DeHavilland, Jabro, Rotol Browning M/Gs Malcolm Hood Rolls-Royce engine Hispano cannon Dunlop tires

38. Rotol Formed 1937 by Rolls-Royce and Bristol Aeroplane Co. Produced over 100,000 three, four and five bladed props Became Dowty-Rotol in 1959

39. SOUTHAMPTON/DISPERSED SPITFIRE PRODUCTION Sewards Garage (Fuselage & Jig production), Polygon Hotel (Design office), Hants & Dorset Bus Station (assembly), Henlys Garage (Fuselage assembly), Sunlight Laundry (Detail fitting etc), Lothers Garage (Toolroom), Shorts Garage (Machine Shop), Weston Rolling Mills (Coppersmiths), Chisnells Garage (Press Shop/Sheet metal), Lingwood Precision- (Landing gear)

40. Spitfire Test Pilots George Pickering “Mutt” Summers Jeffrey Quill Alex Henshaw Frank Furlong

41. Vickers-Supermarine – the war years Mk.1 Spitfire Mk. V Spitfire Mk. IX Spitfire

42. Supermarine Spitfire Production Mk.1 – 1550 – Merlin III rated at 1030 HP Mk.II – 921 - Merlin III rated at 1030 HP Mk.V – 6476 – Merlin 45 rated at 1470 HP Mk. IX – 5653 – Merlin 66 rated at 1575 HP Mk. XIV/Mk. XVI – 2010 – Griffon 65 rated at 2050 HP Total production 22,799 (includes derivative models up to Spiteful)

43. What made the Spitfire design so good? • Basic semi-elliptic wing planform • Low wing loading - 21-25 lb/sq. in. • Knife edge elliptic wing tips • Wing twist +2 deg to – 0.5 deg • Thin wing • Gentle pressure gradients – more stable boundary layer • Wing/body fairing • Small tail unit • “Meredith” effect on lower wing surface components • Minimal frontal area cowling • Ultra slim fuselage

44. Charles Davis – shop foreman Spitfire fuselage manufacture Castle Bromwich

45. Castle Bromwich, workforce numbered 15,854 by 1943 – produced almost half total production of Spitfires

46. Janet May Edna Pugh Lily Holden

47. Spitfire maintenance in Malta

48. Walrus Air-Sea Rescue 746 built Production shared with Saunders-Roe

49. Spiteful April 1945 Seafang F.32 with contra-rotating prop

50. “Attacker” – FF July 1946 “Swift”- FF December 1948 “Scimitar” FF – January 1956