Supermarine Spitfire
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. Many variants of the Spitfire were
built, using several wing configurations, and it was
produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft.
It was also the only
British fighter produced continuously throughout the war.
The Spitfire continues to be popular among enthusiasts;
nearly 60 remain airworthy, and many more are static
exhibits in aviation museums throughout the world.
The Spitfire was designed as a
short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J.
Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works,
which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong from
1928. Mitchell pushed the Spitfire's distinctive elliptical
wing with cutting-edge sunken rivets (designed by Beverley
Shenstone) to have the thinnest possible cross-section,
helping give the aircraft a higher top speed than several
contemporary fighters, including the Hawker Hurricane.
Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death in
1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as
chief designer, overseeing the Spitfire's development
throughout its multitude of variants.
During the Battle of Britain, from
July to October 1940, the public perceived the Spitfire to
be the main RAF fighter, though the more numerous Hurricane
shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against Nazi
Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. However, Spitfire units
had a lower attrition rate and a higher victory-to-loss
ratio than those flying Hurricanes because of the Spitfire's
higher performance. During the battle, Spitfires were
generally tasked with engaging 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Spitfire superseded the Hurricane to become the backbone
of RAF Fighter Command, and saw action in
the European, Mediterranean, Pacific, and South-East
Asian theatres. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire
served in several roles, including interceptor,
photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, and trainer, and it
continued to serve in these roles until the 1950s. The Seafire was
a carrier-based adaptation of the Spitfire that served in
the Fleet Air Arm from 1942 through to the mid-1950s.
Although 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.
SPECIFICATIONS: |
PERFORMANCE:
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Span:
36ft. 10 in
Length: 29
ft. 11 in.
Height:
11 ft.
4.y75 in. Empty Weight:
6,785
lbs. Gross Weight:
Crew:
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Maximum
speed:
374 mph
Cruising
speed:
Range:
Service
ceiling:
37,000
ft. |
Engines:
1,470-hp
Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 |
Armament:
Normally two Hispano 20mm cannon and four Browning .303
machine guns; some with four Hispano 20mm cannon. Two
250-lb. bombs or one 500-lb. bomb.
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SOURCE:
National Museum of the United States Air Force &
Wikipedia |
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Supermarine Aircraft
Supermarine
was a British aircraft manufacturer
that became famous for producing a
range of sea planes and the
Spitfire fighter.
Noel Pemberton Billing set
up a company,
Pemberton-Billing Ltd,
in 1913 to produce seagoing
aircraft. Its telegraphic
address, used for sending
telegrams and cables to the
company, was;
Supermarine, Southampton.
It produced a couple of
prototypes using quadruplane
designs to shoot down
zeppelins; the Supermarine
P.B.29 and the Supermarine
Nighthawk. The aircraft were
fitted with the recoilless
Davis gun and the Nighthawk
had a separate powerplant to
power a searchlight.
Upon election as an MP in
1916 Pemberton-Billing sold
the company to his factory
manager and longtime
associate Hubert Scott-Paine
who renamed the company
Supermarine Aviation Works
Ltd.
The company became famous
for its successes in the
Schneider Trophy for
seaplanes, especially the
three wins in a row of 1927,
1929 and 1931.
In 1928 Vickers-Armstrongs
took over Supermarine as
Supermarine Aviation Works
(Vickers) Ltd
and in 1938 all
Vickers-Armstrongs aviation
interests were reorganised
to become
Vickers-Armstrongs
(Aircraft) Ltd,
although Supermarine
continued to design, build
and trade under its own
name. The phrase
Vickers Supermarine
was applied to the aircraft.
The first Supermarine
landplane design to go into
production was the famous
and successful Spitfire. The
earlier Hawker Hurricane and
the Spitfire were the
mainstay of RAF Fighter
Command fighter aircraft
which fought off the
Luftwaffe
bombing raids with fighter
escorts during the Battle of
Britain in the summer of
1940. While the Hurricane
was available in larger
numbers and consequently
played a larger role, the
new Spitfire caught the
popular imagination and
became the aircraft
associated with the battle.
It went on to play a major
part in the remainder of the
war, in a number of variants
and marks, and it was the
only allied fighter aircraft
to be in production through
the entirety of World War
Two.
Other well-known planes from
World War II were the
Seafire (a naval version of
the Spitfire). Supermarine
also developed the Spiteful
and Seafang, the successors
of the Spitfire and Seafire,
resp., and the Walrus flying
boat.
The
Supermarine main works was
in Woolston, Southampton
which led to the city being
heavily bombed in 1940. This
curtailed work on their
first heavy bomber design,
the Supermarine B.12/36
which was replaced by the
Short Stirling.
After the end of World War
Two, the Supermarine
division built the Royal
Navy's first jet fighter,
the Attacker, which served
front line squadrons aboard
aircraft carriers and RNVR
squadrons at shore bases.
The Attacker was followed by
the more advanced Swift
which served in the fighter
and photo-reconnaissance
roles. The last of the
Supermarine aircraft was the
Scimitar.
After that, in the shakeup
of British aircraft
manufacturing,
Vickers-Armstrongs
(Aircraft) became a part of
the British Aircraft
Corporation and the
individual manufacturing
heritage names were lost.
Northshore Marine Motor
Yachts builds a range of
motorboats under the
Supermarine name in
Chichester, Portsmouth,
England.
Aircraft Produced
-
Pemberton-Billing P.B.1 (1914)
-
Pemberton-Billing P.B.9
-
Pemberton-Billing P.B.23
-
Pemberton-Billing P.B.25 (1915)
-
Pemberton-Billing P.B.29
- AD
Flying Boat (1916)
- AD
Navyplane (1916)
-
Supermarine Nighthawk (1917) –
anti-Zeppelin fighter aircraft
-
Supermarine Baby (1917) – single
seat fighter flying boat
-
Supermarine Sea Lion I (1919) –
Schneider race flying boat
-
Supermarine Sea Lion II and
III (1922)
-
Supermarine Channel (1919) –
civil version of the AD Flying
Boat
-
Supermarine Scylla early (1920s)
-
Supermarine Sea Urchin early
(1920s)
-
Supermarine Commercial Amphibian
(1920)
-
Supermarine Sea King (1920) –
single seat fighter flying boat
-
Supermarine Seagull (1921) –
amphibian Fleet Spotter
-
Supermarine Seal (1921)
-
Supermarine Sea Eagle (1923) –
civil amphibian flying boat
-
Supermarine Scarab (1924) –
military version of Sea Eagle
-
Supermarine Sheldrake
-
Supermarine Swan (1924) –
experimental amphibian
-
Supermarine Sparrow (1924) –
two-seat ultralight
-
Supermarine Southampton (1925) –
flying boat
-
Supermarine S.4 (1925) –
Schneider Trophy race seaplane
-
Supermarine S.5 (1927) –
Schneider Trophy race seaplane
-
Supermarine Nanok (1927)
-
Supermarine Solent (1927)
-
Supermarine Seamew (1928) –
twin-engined flying boat
-
Supermarine S.6 (1929) –
Schneider Trophy race seaplane
-
Supermarine S.6B (1931) –
Schneider Trophy race (first
aircraft over 400 mph)
-
Supermarine Air Yacht (1931) –
six-passenger flying boat
-
Supermarine Type 179 (1931)
-
Supermarine Scapa (1932) –
flying boat
-
Supermarine Stranraer (1932) –
general-purpose flying boat
-
Supermarine Walrus (1933) –
amphibian fleet spotter
-
Supermarine Type 224 (1934)
unsuccessful design for a
fighter aircraft to Air Ministry
specification F.7/30
-
Supermarine Spitfire (1936) –
single seat fighter
-
Supermarine Seafire (1941) –
single-seat carrier-based
fighter version of the
Spitfire
-
Supermarine Spitfire (early
Merlin powered variants) –
Merlin engine variants
-
Supermarine Spitfire (late
Merlin powered variants) –
two-stage Merlin engine
variants
-
Supermarine Spitfire
(Griffon powered variants) –
two-stage Griffon engine
variants
-
Supermarine Sea Otter (1938) –
flying boat
-
Supermarine 322 also S.24/37 or
"Dumbo" (1939)
-
Supermarine Spiteful (1944) –
replacement for the Spitfire
-
Supermarine Seafang (1946) –
development of Spiteful
-
Supermarine Attacker (1946) –
jet fighter
-
Supermarine Seagull ASR-1 (1948)
– air-sea rescue and
reconnaissance
-
Supermarine 510 (1948) – swept
wing Attacker prototype
-
Supermarine 535 (1950) – Swift
predecessor with Nene engine
-
Supermarine Swift (1951) – jet
fighter
-
Supermarine 508 (1951) –
V-tailed, twin engined straight
winged fighter prototype
-
Supermarine 521 (1950) –
Modified Attacker fuselage as
basis for
Handley Page HP.88
-
Supermarine 525 (1954) –
immediate predecessor of
Scimitar
-
Supermarine Scimitar (1956) –
naval ground attack aircraft
Designs and
submissions only
-
Supermarine 318 – four engined
heavy bomber to B.12/36,
abandoned after prototypes
destroyed by German bombing
attack
-
Supermarine Type 305 (1938) –
design project for a turret
armed derivative of the Spitfire
-
Supermarine Type 324 – design
project for a twin Merlin
engined, tricycle undercarriage
fighter based on Spitfire wing
and fuselage.
- Supermarine 545 – supersonic
version of Swift
-
Supermarine Type 553 (1953) –
mach 2 research aircraft project
-
Supermarine Type 559 (1955) –
submission for Operational
Requirement F.155 for a high
altitude supersonic fighter
- Supermarine Type 571 –
submission for GOR.339 TSR.2
requirement
Source:
Wikipedia
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