Anne Vickers' Toy

CCLXXXVI

The Spitfire By The Numbers*

• Number constructed:   20,351, making it the most-produced British plane of the Second World War.   

Though relatively rare, the U.S. did use Spitfires in World War II, particularly in the early months of U.S. involvement. It was the only foreign aircraft used by the USAAF during World War II

• Production history:       Production began in 1938. The Spitfire remained in production throughout the war and up until 1948.

Most Spitfire pilots were young men thrust into war, and like young men thrust into war everywhere, especially fighter pilots, were determined to show that going up in the sky to shoot and get shot at was all in a day’s work. Here, a pilot engages in the 1940 version of multitasking

• There were 19 squadrons of Spitfires engaged in the Battle of Britain. The nineteen squadrons were responsible for shooting down 521 enemy aircraft, an average of 27 per squadron.

The Spitfire proved to be an amazingly versatile aircraft, but its cockpit remained standard throughout its 23 year useful life

• Variants:     Over 40 variants were produced. The major iterations were numbered Mark I (Mk 1) through Mark XXIV (Mk 24).  

Seafang

• Major adaptations of the Spitfire were called the Seafire, the Seafang, and the Spiteful. The Seafire and the Seafang were adapted for use on aircraft carriers. The Spiteful was designed as a piston engine aircraft that could compete with jets. The Seafire and the Seafang had short operational lives. The Spiteful was rendered obsolete by the rapid postwar development of more powerful jet engines.

Seafire

•  1,017 fighter aircraft (of all types) and 520 RAF fighter pilots (in total) were killed in the Battle of Britain. 

Spiteful

• The RAF used the Spitfire from 1938 until 1955. The Spitfire was retired permanently in 1961, when it was dropped from the Active roster of the Irish Air Force.

In 1948 Israel purchased several Spitfires from Czechoslovakia for use in its War of Independence

• The oldest Spitfire in existence today is a 1939 Mark I on display at the RAF Cosford Air History Museum. There are 150 or so authentic Spitfires on display around the world in various Air Museums. Authentic airworthy models number about 54, plus at least one Seafire. There are many mock-ups and flyable reproductions as well.

Just after World War II Egypt purchased several Spitfires from the U.K. These saw service in 1948 against Israel, the only recorded use of Spitfires against Spitfires in combat

• The Spitfire was employed by 22 Air Forces around the world at different times in its history: Australia, Belgium, Burma, Canada, the Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, the Crown Colony of Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Southern Rhodesia, the Union of South Africa, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yugoslavia.

2,927 pilots took part on the Allied side in the Battle of Britain. Most were Britons or Irishmen or citizens of the Empire. Frenchmen and Belgians, Czechs and Poles also flew, besides nine American volunteers. 510 men died in combat. Of all the survivors of “The Few” only six are still living as of March 2019

• Cost Per Unit (1939): £ 12,604 (about $1.1 million dollars in 2019 value). 

• Crew: 1 

• Empty Weight: 5300 pounds. 

• Loaded Weight: 6600 pounds. 

• Top speed: 362 miles per hour. 

• Length: 29’11” 

• Wingspan: 36’10” 

• Height: 11’5” 

• Combat radius:   470 miles. 

• Ferry distance:     1,135 miles.

Nine American volunteers flew in the Battle of Britain along with pilots from the Governments-in-Exile on the continent

• Service Ceiling: 36,500 feet. In 1952, a Spitfire was test-flown to 51,550 feet. However, the pilot lost consciousness and the plane went into a dive which reached 690 miles per hour (Mach 0.96), the fastest speed ever recorded for a propeller-driven aircraft. The pilot recovered consciousness at 3,000 feet and landed safely. There was no discernable damage to the aircraft. 

• Rate of Climb: 2,600 feet per minute.

• Powerplant:

Several  variations of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine were used; the most powerful of these was the Merlin 66 which delivered 1,720 horsepower at 11,000 feet for a top speed of 404 miles per hour. In later Marks, the Merlin was replaced by the Griffon, the most powerful version of which, the Griffon 85, provided 2,120 horsepower at 12,250 feet and a top speed of 454 miles per hour. The service ceiling of the 85-equipped Spitfires was 43,000 feet. The Seafire had the Griffon 88, which provided 2,350 horsepower for a top speed of 454 miles per hour and a service ceiling of 43,100 feet.

• Armaments: The armaments on the Spitfire changed over time and varied somewhat from Mark to Mark. Although all Spitfires used the elliptical wing, four different sets of wings featuring structural differences and differing weaponry were produced over time. 

The “A” wing (first introduced in 1938) had 4 x2 .303 calibre Browning machine guns; air-cooled at first, they tended to freeze at altitude.

The “B” wing had 1 x2 20mm cannon and 2 x2  .303 calibre Browning machine guns adapted for temperature.

The “C” wing had 2 x2 20mm cannon.

The “C Variant” wing had 1 x2 20mm cannon and 2 x2  .303 calibre Browning machine guns.

The “E” wing had 1 x2 20mm cannon and 1 x2  .50 calibre Browning machine guns. 

The wings could also be fitted with 2 x2 bomb racks carrying 500 or 1000 pound bombs. After D-Day the bomb racks were sometimes (unofficially) modified to carry beer kegs in parachute packs, which the pilots would jettison over Allied troop formations. Talk about your milk runs!

Scramble!

• The idea of having retractable landing gear on an aircraft was so revolutionary in 1938 that a surprising number of Mark I Spitfire pilots inadvertently made screeching, sparking high-speed wheels-up landings that didn’t do either the planes or themselves any good.

The Spitfire is one of the most popular subjects of scale and radio-controlled modelers. These are 1:4 scale RCs.

• One possibility for the origin of the name “Spitfire” is that the name came from the President of Vickers-Armstrong, the parent company of Supermarine. It was said he named the airplane after his young daughter Anne, whom he described as “a real little Spitfire.” It’s as good a story as any.

Want your own Spitfire? Want to fly in a reenactment of Dunkirk? You can. For Big Boys (or Big Girls) Who Love Toys (and can afford them) there are operational Spitfire kits. This 9/10s replica only costs $165,000.00. A mere pittance

• Designer R.J. Mitchell always called the plane the Type 300, and thought that Spitfire was “a bloody stupid name, just the type of name they’d give it.” Supermarine really wanted to distinguish the 300 from the earlier 224, and made two other suggestions: The Shrew and The Shrike. Upon hearing this, one horrified British official said, “Thank heavens they changed it. Otherwise we would have lost the bloody war.”

The dynamic sound of the Spitfire

*The numbers apply to the Battle of Britain veteran Mk 1 and Mk 2 of 1939 -1941, except where otherwise noted