The Vickers Supermarine Spitfire

The Vickers Supermarine Spitfire is one of the most iconic planes in the history of aviation. It represented the continual technological advancement in the study of aviation as well as being the focus of many a propaganda issue by the British Government and Press. The idea of flight was still a new and a very unknown theoretical and physical process in the nineteen thirties. Very much like the space race of the nineteen sixties or the Hadron Collider of today, aeroplanes seemed to catch the imagination of many people, young and old. Of these though, only the Spitfire still holds the imagination of so many people today.

The creation of the Supermarine Spitfire I was anything from an easy process. For a plane that presented the pinnacle of British Aviation’s technological advancement during the period, when it was first put forth as and idea to the Air Ministry it was rejected in favour of one of the more reliable, older, biplane designs (Glancey, p.32, 2006). R.J. Mitchell’s, one of the lead designers on the Spitfire until his death in 1937, first design in what would later become the Spitfire was the Supermarine type 224. The Air Ministry rejected this design and the designers turned to another plane that had already been under development, incorporating ideas from the failed type 224. This plane was the Supermarine 300. It was this plane which, after many improvements in design, weaponry and engine type, would become known as the Spitfire I.

The shape and design of the Spitfire is what made it instantly recognisable to the public. Its elliptical single wing design was an incredible advancement in aviation technology (Quill, Cox, 1986). It was not the first plane to utilize a single wing instead of two, like the older bi...

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...le’. They were dependable, adaptable, fast, strong and, above all, popular. The pilots who flew them supported them throughout the war (Glancey, 2006), and even though they changed and adapted as the years of the war grew longer and technologies advanced it still had the same spirit. The spirit that made men sacrifice their lives in defence of a nation. Facing a tyrant who controlled all of the land surrounding them. Land that was only a few miles distant. Britain was a bastion of freedom and hope, and although those early years represent the darkest in the memories of those who remember it, the Spitfire was a shining light at the end of the tunnel. That’s why I love this plane. I think that’s why everyone loves this plane. Because it’s evidence of a time when we as a nation were on the brink, and this plane is the physical representation of what bought us back.