The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the war. The Spitfire was a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft designed by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works, which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong from 1928. Mitchell modified the Spitfire's distinctive elliptical wing (designed by Beverley Shenstone) with innovative sunken rivets to have the thinnest possible cross-section, achieving a potential top speed greater than that of several contemporary fighter aircraft, including the Hawker Hurricane. Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as chief designer.
Smith oversaw the Spitfire's development through many variants, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griffon-engined Mk 24, using several wing configurations and guns. The original airframe was designed to be powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine producing 1,030 hp (768 kW). It was strong enough and adaptable enough to use increasingly powerful Merlins, and in later marks, Rolls-Royce Griffon engines producing up to 2,340 hp (1,745 kW). As a result, the Spitfire's performance and capabilities improved over the course of its service life.
During the Battle of Britain (July–October 1940), the more numerous Hurricane flew more sorties resisting the Luftwaffe, but the Spitfire captured the public's imagination, in part because the Spitfire was generally a better fighter aircraft than the Hurricane. Spitfire units had a lower attrition rate and a higher victory-to-loss ratio than Hurricanes, most likely due to the Spitfire's higher performance. During the battle, Spitfires generally engaged Luftwaffe fighters—mainly Messerschmitt Bf 109E-series aircraft—which were a close match for them.
After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire superseded the Hurricane as the principal aircraft of RAF Fighter Command, and it was used in the European, Mediterranean, Pacific, and South-East Asian theatres.
Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire operated in several roles, including interceptor, photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, and trainer, and it continued to do so until the 1950s. The Seafire was an aircraft carrier-based adaptation of the Spitfire, used in the Fleet Air Arm from 1942 until the mid-1950s. The Spitfire remains popular among enthusiasts. Approximately 60 remain airworthy as of 2025, and many more are static exhibits in aviation museums throughout the world. Five airworthy aircraft are also part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which is a squadron in the RAF. The BBMF is used at air shows.
Development and production Origins
In 1931, the Air Ministry released specification F7/30, calling for a modern fighter capable of a flying speed of to replace the Gloster Gauntlet biplane. R. J. Mitchell designed the Supermarine Type 224 to fill this role in competition with the Blackburn F.3 and Westland F.7/30 and privately funded designs from Gloster. The 224 was an open-cockpit monoplane with bulky gull wings and a large, fixed, spatted undercarriage powered by the , evaporatively cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine.Ethell 1997, p. 6. It made its first flight in February 1934.Andrews and Morgan 1987, p. 206. Of the seven designs tendered to F7/30, the Gloster Gladiator biplane was accepted for service.Price 1977, p. 16.
The Type 224 was a big disappointment to Mitchell and his design team, who immediately embarked on a series of "cleaned-up" designs, using their experience with the Schneider Trophy seaplanes as a starting point. This led to the Type 300, with retractable undercarriage and a wingspan reduced by . This design was submitted to the Air Ministry in July 1934, but was not accepted.Price 1982, p. 16. It then went through a series of changes, including the incorporation of an enclosed cockpit, oxygen-breathing apparatus, smaller and thinner wings, and the newly developed, more powerful Rolls-Royce PV XII V-12 engine, which was later named the "Merlin". In November 1934, Mitchell, with the backing of Supermarine's owner Vickers-Armstrong, started detailed design work on this refined version of the Type 300.Price 1982, p. 17.
On 1 December 1934, the Air Ministry issued contract AM 361140/34, providing £10,000 for the construction of Mitchell's improved Type 300 design.Price 1977, p. 20. In April 1935 Ralph Sorley spoke to Mitchell about the new specification F10/35 which called for armament of at least six and preferably eight guns while at the same time removing bomb carry requirement and reducing fuel capacity. Mitchell foresaw no problem adding the guns and welcomed the reduction which would reduce weight. A specification for an eight-gun fighter, F5/34 had come from a recommendation by Squadron Leader Ralph Sorley of the Operational Requirements section at the Air Ministry.Glancey 2006, pp. 37–38.Price 2002 p21 In the redesign the change was made from Vickers machine guns to .303 in (7.7 mm) Brownings),Price 2003, p. 21. and the fuel tankage dropped to 75 gallons from 94.Price 2002 p23
On 5 March 1936,Morgan and Shacklady 2000, p. 27.For many years, considerable debate occurred over the date of the first flight being 5 or 6 March. Many of Supermarine's records from this era were destroyed during a bombing raid in 1940, and none of the surviving documents seemed to pin this down. This matter was almost conclusively answered in 1985 by aviation author Alfred Price, who received an account sheet with a handwritten note updating a line from "Not yet flown" to "Flew 5 Mar 36". See Spitfire: A Complete Fighting History, 1991, pp. 165–166. the prototype (K5054), fitted with a fine-pitch propeller to give more power for take-off, took off on its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome. At the controls was Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers, who is quoted as having said, "don't touch anything" on landing.Gunston et al. 1992, p. 334. This eight-minute flight came four months after the maiden flight of the contemporary Hurricane.Fleischman, John. "Best of Battle of Britain." Air & Space, March 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2008.
K5054 was fitted with a new propeller, and Summers flew the aircraft on 10 March 1936; during this flight, the undercarriage was retracted for the first time.Price 2002, p. 38. After the fourth flight, a new engine was fitted, and Summers left the test flying to his assistants, Jeffrey Quill and George Pickering. They soon discovered that the SpitfireMcKinstry 2007, p. 55. was a very capable aircraft, but not perfect. The rudder was oversensitive, and the top speed was just 330 mph (528 km/h), little faster than Sydney Camm's new Merlin-powered Hurricane.Glancey 2006, p. 43. A new and better-shaped, two-bladed, wooden propeller allowed the Spitfire to reach 348 mph (557 km/h) in level flight in mid-May, when Summers flew K5054 to RAF Martlesham Heath and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE). Here, Flight Lieutenant Humphrey Edwardes-Jones took over the prototype for the RAF.Humphrey Edwardes-Jones . rafweb.org He had been given orders to fly the aircraft and then to make his report to the Air Ministry on landing. Edwardes-Jones' report was positive; his only request was that the Spitfire be equipped with an undercarriage position indicator.Glancey 2006, p. 44. A week later, on 3 June 1936, the Air Ministry placed an order for 310 Spitfires,Ethell 1997, p. 11. at a cost of £1,395,000.Price 1982, p. 61. before the A&AEE had issued any formal report. Interim reports were later issued on a piecemeal basis.Price 1977, pp. 25, 27.
Initial production The British public first saw the Spitfire at the RAF Hendon air display on Saturday 27 June 1936. Although full-scale production was supposed to begin immediately, numerous problems could not be overcome for some time, and the first production Spitfire, K9787, did not roll off the Woolston, Southampton assembly line until mid-1938.Ethel 1997, p. 12.
In February 1936, the director of Vickers-Armstrong's, Sir Robert MacLean guaranteed production of five aircraft a week, beginning 15 months after an order was placed. On 3 June 1936, the Air Ministry placed an order for 310 aircraft. Full-scale production of the Spitfire began at Supermarine's facility in Woolston, but the order clearly could not be completed in the 15 months promised. Supermarine was a small company, already busy building Walrus and Stranraer flying boats, and Vickers was busy building Wellington bombers. The initial solution was to subcontract the work. Although outside contractors were supposed to be involved in manufacturing many important Spitfire components, especially the wings, Vickers-Armstrong's (the parent company) was reluctant to see the Spitfire being manufactured by outside concerns, and was slow to release the necessary blueprints and subcomponents.Morgan and Shacklady 2000, p. 45.
As a result of the delays in getting the Spitfire into full production, the Air Ministry put forward a plan that its production be stopped after the initial order for 310, after which Supermarine would build Bristol Beaufighters. The managements of Supermarine and Vickers were able to convince the Air Ministry that production problems could be overcome, and a further order was placed for 200 Spitfires on 24 March 1938. The two orders covered the K, L, and N prefix serial numbers.
The first production Spitfire came off the assembly line in mid-1938 and was flown by Jeffrey Quill on 15 May 1938, almost 24 months after the initial order.Price 1982, p. 65. The final cost of the first 310 aircraft, after delays and increased programme costs, came to £1,870,242 or £1,533 more per aircraft than originally estimated.Price 1982, p. 67. A production aircraft cost about £9,500. The most expensive components were the hand-fabricated and finished fuselage at roughly £2,500, then the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine at £2,000, followed by the wings at £1,800 a pair, guns and undercarriage, both at £800 each, and the propeller at £350.Glancey 2006, p. 61.
Manufacturing at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
In 1935, the Air Ministry approached Morris Motors Limited to ask how quickly their Cowley plant could be turned to aircraft production. In 1936, this informal request for major manufacturing facilities was replaced by a formal scheme, known as the shadow factory plan, to boost British aircraft production capacity under the leadership of Herbert Austin. He was given the task of building nine new factories, and to supplement the British car-manufacturing industry by either adding to overall capacity or increasing the potential for reorganisation to produce aircraft and their engines.