Exceptionally Plane People Noel Pemberton Billing Hubert ScottPaine

Exceptionally Plane People

Noel Pemberton Billing Hubert Scott-Paine Commander James Bird

Supermarine Woolston

Satellite airfield at Eastleigh Main Supermarine factories at Woolston and Itchen

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

Napier Lion Engine – RAF Museum Hendon

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

Henri Biard – 1922 Schneider Trophy winner

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

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

1 tle t i l o o D y m t Jim L r e n n i w y oph r T r e d i e n h 925 Sc

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

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

S. 5 S. 4 S. 6 B

Air Ministry Specification F. 7/30 “A fighter capable of at least 250 mph and armed with four machine guns” ne i r a rm e p u S 24 2 e Typ The winning “Gloster Gladiator”

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 S 224 first flight 1935 AM Spec F. 37/34 released 1936 Spitfire first flight AM Spec 10/35 eight guns 1937 1938 August 1938 first delivery 19 Sqn

“ …. . 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 Mc. Lean – Chairman Vickers Aviation Ltd.

A. F. Sidgreaves Sir Robert Mc. Lean R. J. Mitchell Supermarine Type 300 Ernest Hives

F 7/30 refined – Supermarine Drawing 30000 sheet 11 Dated September 1934 from Smith

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

Alexander Lippisch

Ludwig Prandtl

ton f i l C n a Al res u t c u r t S

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

Joseph Smith’s Spitfire main spar construction

First Flight Day March 5, 1936

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

Rolls-Royce Derby Supermarine Woolston

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

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

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

Hursley Park

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 - De. Havilland, Jabro, Rotol Browning M/Gs Malcolm Hood Rolls-Royce engine Dunlop tires Hispano cannon

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

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)

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

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

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)

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

Charles Davis – shop foreman Spitfire fuselage manufacture Castle Bromwich

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

Edna Pugh Lily Holden Janet May

Spitfire maintenance in Malta

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

Spiteful April 1945 Seafang F. 32 with contrarotating prop

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

Supermarine’s demise Hursley Park taken over in 1958 by IBM Supermarine aircraft design staff moved to Vickers at Weybridge for work on supersonic projects (including TSR. 2) Became part of British Aircraft Corporation 1960

Bibliography for Exceptional Plane people – Supermarine “Supermarine Aircraft since 1914” by C. F. Andrews & E. B. Morgan. 1981 Naval Institute Press “Spitfire” by Jeffrey Quill. 1985 Arrow Books “R. J. Mitchell. Schooldays to Spitfire” by Gordon Mitchell (RJ’s son). 1986 Tempus Publishing. Charleston SC. “Sigh for a Merlin” by Alex Henshaw 1979 Crecy Publishing Ltd UK. “The Spitfire – 50 years on” by Michael J. F. Bowyer. 1986 Patrick Stephens, Wellingborough “The Schneider Trophy Story” by Edward Eves 2001 MBI Publishing st. Paul MN “Spitfire – Story of a famous fighter” by Bruce Robertson. 1661 Garden Press Ltd. Letchworth UK. “The Magic of a Name – the Rolls-Royce Story” Vol. One by Peter Pugh. 2000 Icon Booksltd. Duxford UK “Supermarine Spitfire – Owners’ Workshop Manual” 2007 Haynes Publishing (Haynes North America)

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