152-598: The Hawker Henley was a British two-seat target tug derived from the Hawker Hurricane that was operated by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War . In 1934 Air Ministry Specification P.4/34 was issued which called for a light bomber that could also be deployed in a close-support role as a dive-bomber . Fairey , Gloster and Hawker each offered designs to fill this role. As
304-567: A Merlin "F" engine, that it first flew at Brooklands, shortly after the competing Fairey P.4/34 . Subsequently, the aircraft was refitted with light alloy stressed-skin wings and a Merlin I engine (the production version of the F) and further test flights confirmed a top speed of 300 mph (480 km/h), which met the RAF's requirements. By this time the Air Ministry had dropped its requirement for
456-504: A Watts two-bladed fixed-pitch wooden propeller. Flight commented of this arrangement: "Many have expressed surprise that the Hurricane is not fitted with variable-pitch airscrews". The original two-bladed propeller was found to be inefficient at low airspeeds and the aircraft required a long ground run to get airborne, which caused concern at Fighter Command. Accordingly, trials with a de Havilland variable-pitch propeller demonstrated
608-578: 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 After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire superseded the Hurricane as the principal aircraft of RAF Fighter Command , and it was used in the European , Mediterranean , Pacific , and South-East Asian theatres.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
760-699: A decision in December 1936 to replace the Merlin I with the improved Merlin II, which resulted in many detail alterations. Merlin I production ended after 180 were built. This engine had been prioritised for the Fairey Battle light bomber and the Hawker Henley , a failed competitor to the Battle briefly adapted as a target tug which shared common elements with the Hurricane design. By the following December,
912-568: A dive. This could be alleviated by the use of a constant speed propeller, but these were not available in sufficient numbers until 1940 when they were urgently needed for Hurricanes. Henley production was subcontracted to Gloster and 200 were ordered into production. The second prototype was fitted with a propeller-driven winch to haul in a target tug's drogue cable after air-to-air firing sorties and first flew on 26 May 1938. Production Henley TT.III target tug aircraft entered service with Nos. 1, 5 and 10 Bombing and Gunnery Schools, as well as with
1064-434: A few aerobatic tests to determine how good or bad she was. The production test was usually quite a brisk affair; the initial circuit lasted less than 10 minutes and the main flight took between 20 and 30 minutes. Then, the aircraft received a final once-over by our ground mechanics, any faults were rectified, and the Spitfire was ready for collection. I loved the Spitfire in all of her many versions, but I have to admit that
1216-498: A jig and the eight horizontal tail formers were riveted to them. A combination of 14 longitudinal stringers and four main longerons attached to the frames helped form a light but rigid structure to which sheets of alclad stressed skinning were attached. The fuselage plating was 24, 20, and 18 gauge , decreasing in order of thickness towards the tail, while the fin structure was completed using short longerons from frames 20 to 23, before being covered in 22 gauge plating. The skin of
1368-430: A large penalty for their fuel injection. When the fuel is fed before the supercharger, as on the Merlin, it evaporates and cools the air by 25°C. This cooling enhances the performance of the supercharger, and increases the power of the engine, with a corresponding increase in aircraft speed, particularly at high altitude." However, the early Merlin engine's lack of fuel injection meant that Spitfires and Hurricanes, unlike
1520-415: A light bomber, possibly because this role was adequately filled by the Fairey Battle . The Henley, was never fitted with dive brakes , bomb crutches, or dive bombing sights, which limited attack angles to under 70° and impacted accuracy, and was instead relegated to target-towing duties. The Air Ministry's decision to abandon work on dive bombers in 1938 had much to do with the danger of engine overspeed in
1672-507: A maximum rate of 320 per month, making CBAF the largest Spitfire factory in the UK and the largest and most successful plant of its type during the 1939–45 conflict. During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe made concerted efforts to destroy the main manufacturing plants at Woolston and Itchen , near Southampton. The first bombing raid, which missed the factories, came on 23 August 1940. Over
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#17327730225021824-655: A number of manufacturers were to repair and overhaul battle-damaged aircraft including Hurricanes. Some of these were later sent to training units or to other air forces. Factories involved included the Austin Aero Company 's Cofton Hackett plant and David Rosenfield Ltd, based at Barton aerodrome near Manchester . The Canadian Car and Foundry of Fort William, Ontario , Canada was a major Hurricane manufacturer, producing them from November 1938 after receiving their initial contract for 40 Hurricanes. The facility's chief engineer, Elsie MacGill , became known as
1976-470: A pattern for Canadian Car and Foundry , one for Iran, one for Poland, three for Romania and 12 for Yugoslavia. All the built for export aircraft were taken from the RAF order and so all originally had an RAF serial. Further exports were done in the final four months of 1939 and early 1940. Hurricane production was increased as part of a plan to create a reserve of attrition aircraft as well as re-equip existing squadrons and newly formed ones such as those of
2128-589: A piecemeal basis. 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. In February 1936, the director of Vickers-Armstrongs, Sir Robert MacLean guaranteed production of five aircraft
2280-572: 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 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
2432-681: A prototype to the September proposal was placed on 21 February 1935. At the time the armament was two Vickers Mark V machine guns in the fuselage and one Browning machine gun in each wing. Work on stressed skin outer wings to replace the fabric covered ones began in July and the contract was altered in August to include another set of wings with eight guns in them; the guns were to be either Vickers or Brownings. These wings were delivered in June 1936. By
2584-475: A reduction in the Hurricane's take-off run from 1,230 to 750 ft (370 to 230 m). Deliveries of these began in April 1939: this was later replaced by the hydraulically operated constant-speed Rotol propeller, which came into service in time for the Battle of Britain. Then, with tail trimmer set, throttle and mixture lever fully forward... and puffs of grey exhaust smoke soon clearing at maximum r.p.m. came
2736-446: A similar fashion to a leaf spring ; two of these booms were linked together by an alloy web, creating a lightweight and very strong main spar. The undercarriage legs were attached to pivot points built into the inner, rear section of the main spar, and retracted outwards and slightly backwards into wells in the non-load-carrying wing structure. The resultant narrow undercarriage track was considered an acceptable compromise as this reduced
2888-464: A stalling speed of 57 mph (92 km/h) (only marginally higher than the Gladiator biplane), the last achieved using its flaps . In the course of further testing, it was found that the Hurricane had poor spin recovery characteristics, in which all rudder authority could be lost due to shielding of the rudder. Hawker's response to the issue was to request that spinning tests be waived, but
3040-419: A total of 2,360 Spitfires and Seafires, more than 10% of total production. Henshaw wrote about flight testing Spitfires: After a thorough preflight check, I would take off, and once at circuit height, I would trim the aircraft and try to get her to fly straight and level with hands off the stick ... Once the trim was satisfactory, I would take the Spitfire up in a full-throttle climb at 2,850 rpm to
3192-502: 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
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#17327730225023344-409: A wing shape from an aircraft designed for an entirely different purpose." The elliptical wing was decided upon quite early on. Aerodynamically it was the best for our purpose because the induced drag caused in producing lift, was lowest when this shape was used: the ellipse was ... theoretically a perfection ... To reduce drag we wanted the lowest possible thickness-to-chord, consistent with
3496-413: A wooden mock-up had been finished, and although a number of suggestions for detail changes were made, construction of the prototype was approved, and a new specification (F.36/34) was written around the design. In July 1935, this specification was amended to include installation of eight guns. The mock-up conference with Air Ministry staff was on 10 January 1935 at Kingston. The ministry order to purchase
3648-583: Is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe in the campaign, and fought in all
3800-504: Is compromise, and an improvement at one end of the performance envelope is rarely achieved without a deterioration somewhere else. When the last Spitfire rolled out in February 1948, a total of 20,351 examples of all variants had been built, including two-seat trainers , with some Spitfires remaining in service well into the 1950s. The Spitfire was the only British fighter aircraft to be in continuous production before, during, and after
3952-622: The Auxiliary Air Force . Expansion scheme E included a target of 500 fighters of all types by the start of 1938. By the time of the Munich Crisis , there were only two fully operational RAF squadrons of the planned 12 to be equipped with Hurricanes. By the time of the German invasion of Poland there were 16 operational Hurricane squadrons as well as a further two more that were in the process of converting. On 24 August 1939,
4104-624: The Belgian Air Force , and it was intended to arm these aircraft with four 13.2 mm (0.52 in) Browning machine guns . Three were built and two flown with this armament by the time of the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, with at least 12 more constructed by Avions Fairey armed with the conventional eight rifle calibre machine gun armament. The Hawker Hurricane is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with retractable undercarriage and an enclosed cockpit. The primary structure of
4256-526: 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 600-horsepower (450 kW), evaporatively cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine. It made its first flight in February 1934. Of the seven designs tendered to F7/30, the Gloster Gladiator biplane
4408-449: The Hart , but enhanced by livelier controls, greater precision and all this performance. Roland Beamont describing his first flight in a Hurricane as a trainee pilot. Camm's priority was to provide the pilot with good all-round visibility. To this end, the cockpit was mounted reasonably high in the fuselage, creating a distinctive "hump-backed" silhouette. Pilot access to the cockpit
4560-525: The Luftwaffe actually lost only one Bf 109. Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft 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 remains popular among enthusiasts. Around 70 remain airworthy , and many more are static exhibits in aviation museums throughout
4712-519: The Meuse , at Maastricht . The escort consisted of eight Hurricanes of 1 Squadron, with Squadron Leader P. J. H. "Bull" Halahan in the lead. When the formation approached Maastricht, it was bounced by 16 Bf 109Es from 2./JG 27 . Two Battles and two Hurricanes (including Halahan's) were shot down, two more Battles were brought down by flak and the fifth bomber had to crash-land. The 1 Squadron pilots claimed four Messerschmitts and two Heinkel He 112s , while
Hawker Henley - Misplaced Pages Continue
4864-486: The NACA 2200 series , which had been adapted to create a thickness-to-chord ratio of 13% at the root, reducing to 9.4% at the tip. A dihedral of 6° was adopted to give increased lateral stability. A wing feature that contributed greatly to its success was an innovative spar boom design, made up of five square tubes that fitted into each other. As the wing thinned out along its span, the tubes were progressively cut away in
5016-648: The PV-12 , which went on to become famous as the Merlin . In August 1934, a one-tenth scale model of the design was produced and sent to the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington , where a series of wind tunnel tests confirmed the aerodynamics were satisfactory, and in September 1934 Camm again approached the Air Ministry. This time, the Ministry's response was favourable, and a prototype of
5168-546: The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine which offered the best power-weight ratio and minimized frontal area. The Henley's cantilever fabric-covered monoplane wing was mid-set, a retractable tail wheel landing gear was selected and accommodation provided for a pilot and observer/air gunner. Although construction of the Henley prototype began in mid-1935, the Hurricane had priority, and it was not until 10 March 1937, powered by
5320-630: The Royal Navy known as the Sea Hurricane had modifications including an arrestor hook near the tail, enabling operation from ships. Some were converted as catapult-launched convoy escorts. By the end of production in July 1944, 14,487 units had been completed in Britain and Canada, with others built in Belgium and Yugoslavia. During the early 1930s, when Hawker Aircraft company developed
5472-412: The aerodrome , and the installation of the most modern machine tools then available began two months after work started on the site. Although Morris Motors, under Lord Nuffield (an expert in mass motor-vehicle construction), managed and equipped the factory, it was funded by the government. By the beginning of 1939, the factory's original estimated cost of £2,000,000 had more than doubled, and even as
5624-408: The angle of incidence decreasing from +2° at its root to -½° at its tip. This caused the wing roots to stall before the tips, reducing tip-stall that could otherwise have resulted in a wing drop, often leading to a spin. As the wing roots started to stall, the separating air stream started to buffet (vibrate) the aircraft, warning the pilot, allowing even relatively inexperienced pilots to fly it to
5776-579: 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. In 1938, construction began on the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory (CBAF), next to
5928-495: The "Interceptor Monoplane" was promptly ordered. In July 1934, at a meeting chaired by Air Commodore Arthur Tedder (director of training), the Air Ministry Science Officer Captain F.W. "Gunner" Hill presented his calculation showing that future fighters must carry no fewer than eight machine guns, each capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute. / Hill's assistant in making his calculations
6080-527: The "Queen of the Hurricanes". The initiative was commercially driven, but was endorsed by the British government. Hawker recognised that a major conflict was inevitable after the Munich Crisis of 1938 and drew up preliminary plans to expand Hurricane production at a new factory in Canada. Under this plan, samples, pattern aircraft, and design documents stored on microfilm were shipped to Canada. In 1938/39
6232-614: 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. In 1931, the Air Ministry released specification F7/30 , calling for a modern fighter capable of a flying speed of 250 mph (400 km/h) to replace the Gloster Gauntlet biplane. R. J. Mitchell designed the Supermarine Type 224 to fill this role in competition with
Hawker Henley - Misplaced Pages Continue
6384-641: The AASF when the order to move to France was received and the home station HQs, 71, 72 74–76 Wings. In response to a request from the French government for the provision of 10 fighter squadrons to provide air support, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding , Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command, insisted that this number would deplete British defences severely, and so initially only four squadrons of Hurricanes, 1 , 73 , 85 and 87 , were relocated to France, keeping Spitfires back for "Home" defence. The first to arrive
6536-676: The Advanced Air Striking Force (No. 1 to Berry-au-Bac , north-west of Paris; No. 73 to Rouvres ) while two more, No. 85 and No. 87, formed 60 Wing of the Air Component, BEF. While the two squadrons of No. 60 Wing had their Hurricanes painted in the standard colour scheme and markings of Home-based fighters, those of No. 67 Wing differed considerably. It was probably because No. 1 and No. 73 Squadrons were operating in close proximity to French fighter squadrons that these units painted red, white, and blue stripes over
6688-569: The Air Gunnery Schools at Barrow, Millom and Squires Gate . Unfortunately, unless the aircraft were restricted to an unrealistically low towing speed of 220 mph (350 km/h), engine failures was unacceptably frequent, which was attributed to the cooling system matching the Henley's original mission but inadequate when towing a target, with its substantial drag, which resulted in high engine speeds but low airspeed. Henleys were transferred to anti-aircraft co-operation units, however
6840-445: The Air Ministry placed its first order for 600 aircraft. On 26 June 1936 the Air Ministry approved the type name of "Hurricane" that had been proposed by Hawker, and an informal naming ceremony occurred the following month during an official visit by King Edward VIII to Martlesham Heath. It was significantly cheaper to produce than the Supermarine Spitfire and took 10,300 person hours per airframe to produce, compared to 15,200 for
6992-456: 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
7144-486: The Air Ministry refused the request; the situation was resolved by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), who established that the aerodynamic problem had been caused by a breakdown of the airflow over the lower fuselage, and could be cured by the addition of a small ventral fairing and extension of the bottom of the rudder. This discovery had come too late for the changes to be incorporated in
7296-547: The British Air Ministry issued Specification F.5/34 in response to demands within the Royal Air Force (RAF) for a new generation of fighter aircraft . Earlier, during 1933, British aircraft designer Sydney Camm had conducted discussions with Major John Buchanan of the Directorate of Technical Development on a monoplane based on the existing Fury. Mason attributes Camm's discussions with figures within
7448-486: The British government gave Hawker the clearance to sell excess aircraft to nations that were likely to oppose German expansion. As a result, there were some modest export sales made to other countries; at the earliest opportunity, a former RAF Hurricane I was dispatched to Yugoslavia for evaluation purposes. Shortly after this evaluation, an order for 24 Hurricane Mk.Is for the Royal Yugoslav Air Force
7600-518: The British government gave orders partially to mobilise and No. 1 Group RAF ( Air Vice-Marshal Patrick Playfair ) sent its 10 Fairey Battle day-bomber squadrons to France, according to plans established by the British and French earlier in the year. The group was the first echelon of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) and flew from bases at Abingdon, Harwell, Benson, Boscombe Down and Bicester. The group HQ became
7752-565: The Castle Bromwich plant to his ministry. Beaverbrook immediately sent in experienced management staff and workers from Supermarine, and gave control of the factory to Vickers-Armstrongs. Although resolving the problems took time, in June 1940, 10 Mk IIs were built; 23 rolled out in July, 37 in August, and 56 in September. By the time production ended at Castle Bromwich in June 1945, a total of 12,129 Spitfires (921 Mk IIs, 4,489 Mk Vs, 5,665 Mk IXs, and 1,054 Mk XVIs ) had been built, at
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#17327730225027904-539: The French campaign, and delivered great praise for his aircraft's performance: Throughout the bad days of 1940, 87 Squadron had maintained a proficient formation aerobatic team, the precise flying controls and responsive engines permitting precision formation through loops, barrel rolls, 1 g semi-stall turns and rolls off half-loops ... My Hurricane was never hit in the Battles of France and Britain, and in over 700 hr on type I never experienced an engine failure. While
8056-470: The Goshawk led to the adoption of a cooling system which used 100% glycol . The radiators were housed in a new radiator-duct designed by Fredrick Meredith of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough, Hampshire . This used the cooling air to generate thrust , greatly reducing the net drag produced by the radiators. In turn, the leading-edge structure lost its function as a condenser, but it
8208-482: The Hurricane remained in use in theatres of operations where reliability, easy handling and a stable gun platform were more important than performance, typically in roles like ground attack. One of the design requirements of the original specification was that both the Hurricane and the Spitfire were also to be used as night fighters . The Hurricane proved to be a relatively simple aircraft to fly at night, and shot down several German aircraft on night raids. From early 1941
8360-460: The Hurricane was also used as an "intruder" aircraft, patrolling German airfields in France at night to catch bombers taking off or landing. By the middle of 1938, the first 50 Hurricanes had reached squadrons and, at that time, it had been assessed that the rate of production was slightly greater than the RAF's capacity to introduce the new aircraft, which had already been accelerated. Accordingly,
8512-452: The Hurricane's cantilever wing consisted of two steel spars, which possessed considerable strength and stiffness. The wing was described by Flight as relatively straightforward to manufacture, employing simple vertical jigs to attach the two spars, after which the wing ribs were installed using horizontal bolts, forming separate units between the front and rear spars. Hydraulically -actuated split trailing edge flaps were fitted to
8664-653: The Hurricane, RAF Fighter Command had just 13 squadrons, equipped with the Hawker Fury , Hawker Demon , or the Bristol Bulldog , all biplanes with fixed- pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. At the time, there was an institutional reluctance towards change within the Air Staff ; some senior figures were prejudiced against the adoption of monoplane fighter aircraft, while mid-level officers were typically more open-minded. In 1934
8816-428: The Hurricane. A fabric-covered wing was initially adopted in order to accelerate production, while a higher-performing stressed-skin metal wing was introduced in late 1939. The first production Hurricane I first flew on 12 October 1937, flown by Flight Lieutenant Philip Lucas and powered by a Merlin II engine. While a contract for 600 Hurricanes was received on 2 June 1936, deliveries lagged by roughly six months due to
8968-605: The North Sea. The Heinkels, which were flying at sea level in an attempt to avoid fighter attacks, had already been attacked and damaged by two Spitfires from 72 Squadron when six Hurricanes intercepted them. The Hurricanes shot down four of the enemy in rapid succession, 46 Squadron claiming five and the Spitfire pilots two. After his first flight in October 1939, Hurricane pilot Roland Beamont subsequently flew operationally with 87 Squadron, claiming three enemy aircraft during
9120-496: The RAF, such as Squadron Leader Ralph Sorley , as having provoked the specification and some of its details, such as the preference for armaments being installed within the wings instead of within the aircraft's nose. An outline of the "Fury Monoplane" armed with two guns in the wings and two in the nose and powered by the Goshawk engine was prepared and discussed with Roger Liptrot of the Air Ministry in December 1933. The design
9272-681: The RCAF ordered 24 Hurricanes to equip one fighter squadron, 20 of which were delivered, and two were supplied to Canadian Car and Foundry as pattern aircraft but one probably did not arrive, while the other was returned to Britain in 1940. The first Hurricane built at Canadian Car and Foundry was completed in February 1940. Canadian-built Hurricanes shipped to Britain participated in the Battle of Britain . Overall, some 14,487 Hurricanes and Sea Hurricanes were produced in England and Canada. The majority of Hurricanes, 9,986 were built by Hawker (who produced
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#17327730225029424-471: 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. 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
9576-619: The Sahara to the Middle East theatre and, to save space, some Royal Navy aircraft carriers carried their reserve Sea Hurricanes dismantled into their major assemblies, which were slung up on the hangar bulkheads and deckhead for reassembly when needed. In contrast, the contemporary Spitfire used all-metal monocoque construction and was thus both lighter and stronger, though less tolerant of bullet damage. With its ease of maintenance, widely set landing gear and benign flying characteristics,
9728-730: The Second World War. In the mid-1930s, aviation design teams worldwide began developing a new generation of fighter aircraft. The French Dewoitine D.520 and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 , for example, were designed to take advantage of new techniques of monocoque construction, and the availability of new, high-powered, liquid-cooled, in-line aero engines. They also had refinements such as retractable undercarriages, fully enclosed cockpits, and low-drag, all-metal wings. These advances had been introduced on civil airliners years before, but were slow to be adopted by
9880-556: The Southampton area. To this end, the British government requisitioned the likes of Vincent's Garage in Station Square, Reading , which later specialised in manufacturing Spitfire fuselages, and Anna Valley Motors, Salisbury , which was to become the sole producer of the wing leading-edge fuel tanks for photo-reconnaissance Spitfires. A purpose-built works, specialising in manufacturing fuselages and installing engines,
10032-427: The Spitfire, which had many parts formed by hand, with English wheels . As war was looking likely, and time was of the essence in providing the RAF with an effective fighter, the authorities expected there to be problems with the more advanced Spitfire, while the Hurricane made use of well proven manufacturing techniques. The service squadrons were also already experienced in maintaining aircraft structurally similar to
10184-482: The Type 300. 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. 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
10336-559: The UK over the North Sea , and Germany did not have any single-engine fighters with the range to accompany them. To carry out the mission of home defence, the design was intended to allow the Spitfire to climb quickly to intercept enemy bombers. The Spitfire's airframe was complex. The streamlined, semi-monocoque , duralumin-skinned fuselage had a number of compound curves built up over a skeleton of 19 formers , also known as frames. These started from frame number one, immediately behind
10488-420: The acceptance of the final multi-gun wing armament. By March 1936, the prototype had completed ten flying hours, covering all major portions of the flight envelope. Early testing had gone reasonably well, especially in light of the trial status of the Merlin engine, which had yet to achieve full flight certification at this time and thus severe restrictions had been imposed upon use of the engine. In early 1936,
10640-407: The aircraft only required a modest bomb load and with performance paramount, Hawker developed an aircraft similar to their Hurricane fighter. The Hurricane was then in an advanced stage of development and there would be economies of scale if some assemblies were common to both aircraft. This resulted in the Henley sharing outer wing panels and tailplanes with the Hurricane. Both were equipped with
10792-542: The altered aerodynamics, culminating in those of the Mk 22/24 series, which were 25% larger in area than those of the Mk I. As the Spitfire gained more power and was able to manoeuvre at higher speeds, the possibility that pilots would encounter aileron reversal increased, and the Supermarine design team set about redesigning the wings to counter this. The original wing design had a theoretical aileron reversal speed of 580 mph (500 kn; 930 km/h), which
10944-423: The assembly line in mid-1938 and was flown by Jeffrey Quill on 15 May 1938, almost 24 months after the initial order. 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. A production aircraft cost about £9,500. The most expensive components were the hand-fabricated and finished fuselage at roughly £2,500, then
11096-454: The bending loads on the main-spar during landing. Ahead of the spar, the thick-skinned leading edge of the wing formed a strong and rigid, D-shaped box, which took most of the wing loads. At the time the wing was designed, this D-shaped leading edge was intended to house steam condensers for the evaporative cooling system intended for the PV-XII. Constant problems with the evaporative system in
11248-493: The border, fell in flames about 10 mi (16 km) west of Toul . Mould was the first RAF pilot to down an enemy aircraft on the European continent in the Second World War. According to Mason, the experiences gained in these early engagements proved invaluable in developing tactics which became tried and tested, and rapidly spread throughout Fighter Command. On 6 November 1939, Pilot Officer Peter Ayerst from 73 Squadron
11400-631: The campaign. They attacked one of three Dornier Do 17s from 4. Staffel/ KG 2 that were flying over their airfield at Rouvres-en-Woevre . The Dornier went away unscathed, while Orton was hit by defensive fire and had to force land. On the same day the Hurricane squadrons claimed 42 German aircraft, none of them fighters, shot down during 208 sorties; seven Hurricanes were lost but no pilots were killed. On 12 May several Hurricanes units were committed to escort bombers. That morning, five Fairey Battle volunteer crews from 12 Squadron took off from Amifontaine base to bomb Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt bridges on
11552-402: The company in the Southampton area. Quill devised the standard testing procedures, which with variations for specific aircraft designs operated from 1938. Alex Henshaw , chief test pilot at Castle Bromwich from 1940, was placed in charge of testing all Spitfires built at that factory. He co-ordinated a team of 25 pilots and assessed all Spitfire developments. Between 1940 and 1946, Henshaw flew
11704-423: The course of RAF trials, despite the problems with the Merlin engine, which had suffered numerous failures and necessitating several changes, enthusiastic reports were produced on the aircraft and its performance. The trials had proved the aircraft to possess a maximum level speed of 315 mph (507 km/h) at an altitude of 16,200 ft (4,900 m), climb to 15,000 ft (4,600 m) in 5.7 minutes, and
11856-609: The drogues used for these were even larger and engine failures further increased, while there were also difficulties in releasing the drogues. Several Henleys were lost when the drogue could not be released quickly enough. No solution was found and in mid-1942, the Henley was withdrawn, in favour of modified Boulton Paul Defiants , and purpose-built Miles Martinet aircraft. Data from Hawker aircraft since 1920 General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane
12008-405: The end of August 1935, work on the airframe had been completed at Hawker's Kingston upon Thames facility and the aircraft components were transported to Brooklands , Surrey , where Hawker had an assembly shed; the prototype was fully re-assembled on 23 October 1935. Ground testing and taxi trials took place over the following two weeks. On 6 November 1935 the prototype K5083 took to the air for
12160-405: The end of each main wing assembly. When the Spitfire took on a role as a high-altitude fighter (Marks VI and VII and some early Mk VIIIs), the standard wing tips were replaced by extended, "pointed" tips which increased the wingspan from 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m) to 40 ft 2 in (12.24 m). The other wing-tip variation, used by several Spitfire variants, was the "clipped" wing;
12312-547: The engine cowling which used lightweight metal panels instead. Camm had decided to use traditional Hawker construction techniques instead of more advanced options, such as a stressed-skin metal construction. This form of construction resembled that of earlier biplanes and was already considered to be somewhat outdated when the Hurricane was introduced to service . The Hurricane was initially armed with an arrangement of eight remotely-operated wing-mounted Browning machine guns, intended for conducting rapid engagements. The Hurricane
12464-413: The engine; detachable cowling panels allowed access to most of the engine's areas for maintenance. Installed underneath the fuselage, the liquid-cooled radiator has a rectangular opening to its aft; this is covered by a hinged flap, allowing the pilot to control the cooling level. An atypical feature for the era was the use of Tungum alloy pipes throughout the cooling system. Initially, the structure of
12616-544: The entire height of the rudders on their Hurricanes in a similar manner to the standard French AF National markings. As the French squadrons were not familiar with the British use of code letters, and there could have been cause for error in aircraft identification, both Hurricane squadrons removed their squadron identification letters, leaving the grey-painted aircraft letter aft of the fuselage roundel. The decision to adopt these special changes in markings seems to have been made at 67 Group HQ (the immediate command authority for
12768-513: The fabric covering of the ailerons "ballooned" at high speeds, adversely affecting the aerodynamics. Replacing the fabric covering with light alloy dramatically improved the ailerons at high speed. During the Battle of Britain, pilots found the Spitfire's ailerons were far too heavy at high speeds, severely restricting lateral manoeuvres such as rolls and high-speed turns, which were still a feature of air-to-air combat. The Spitfire had detachable wing tips which were secured by two mounting points at
12920-404: The fabric ones was that the metal ones could carry far greater stress loads without needing as much structure." Several fabric-wing Hurricanes were still in service during the Battle of Britain, although a good number had had their wings replaced during servicing or after repair. Changing the wings required only three hours work per aircraft. The Hurricane had a inward-retracting undercarriage ,
13072-567: The final approach and for landing, and the pilot was to retract them before taxiing. The ellipse also served as the design basis for the Spitfire's fin and tailplane assembly, once again exploiting the shape's favourable aerodynamic characteristics. Both the elevators and rudder were shaped so that their centre of mass was shifted forward, reducing control-surface flutter. The longer noses and greater propeller-wash resulting from larger engines in later models necessitated increasingly larger vertical, and later, horizontal tail surfaces to compensate for
13224-434: The first Spitfires were being built in June 1940, the factory was still incomplete, and suffering from personnel problems. The Spitfire's stressed-skin construction required precision engineering skills and techniques that were beyond the capabilities of the local labour force, and some time was required to retrain them. Difficulties arose with management, who ignored Supermarine's tooling and drawings in favour of their own, and
13376-582: The first four aircraft to enter service with the RAF had joined No. 111 Squadron , stationed at RAF Northolt . By February 1938, No. 111 Squadron had received 16 Hurricanes. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, over 550 Hurricanes had been produced equipping 18 squadrons, with 3,500 more on order. During 1940, Lord Beaverbrook , the Minister of Aircraft Production , established the Civilian Repair Organisation through which
13528-474: The first production aircraft, but were introduced upon the 61st built and all subsequent aircraft. In early 1936, the Hawker board of directors had decided, in the absence of official authorisation and at company expense, to proceed with the issue of the design drawings to the production design office and to start tooling-up for a production line capable of producing a batch of 1,000 Hurricanes. In June 1936
13680-402: The first time at the hands of Hawker's chief test pilot , Flight Lieutenant George Bulman . Bulman was assisted by two other pilots in subsequent flight testing; Philip Lucas flew some of the experimental test flights, while John Hindmarsh conducted the firm's production flight trials. As completed, the prototype had been fitted with ballast to represent the aircraft's armament prior to
13832-474: The focal points for these workshops: Southampton's Eastleigh Airport; Salisbury and the High Post and Chattis Hill aerodromes; Trowbridge and RAF Keevil ; and Reading's Henley and Aldermaston aerodromes. Completed Spitfires were delivered to the airfields on Commer " Queen Mary " low-loader trailers, there to be fully assembled, tested, then passed on to the RAF. An experimental factory at Newbury
13984-428: The four main fuselage longerons to the rest of the airframe. Behind the bulkhead were five U-shaped half-frames which accommodated the fuel tanks and cockpit. The rear fuselage started at the 11th frame, to which the pilot's seat and (later) armour plating were attached, and ended at the 19th, which was mounted at a slight forward angle just forward of the fin. Each of these nine frames was oval, reducing in size towards
14136-410: The fuselage was a Warren truss box-girder with high-tensile steel longerons and duralumin cross-bracing, which were mechanically fastened rather than being welded . Over this, a secondary structure composed of wooden formers and stringers covered with doped linen gave the fuselage a rounded section. The majority of the external surfaces were linen, except for a section between the cockpit and
14288-425: The fuselage, synchronised to fire through the propeller arc. By January 1934, the proposal's detail drawings had been finished, but these failed to impress the Air Ministry enough for a prototype to be ordered. Camm's response to this rejection was to further develop the design, introducing a retractable undercarriage and replacing the unsatisfactory Goshawk engine with a new Rolls-Royce design, initially designated
14440-477: The fuselage, wings, and tailplane was secured by dome-headed rivets, and in critical areas such as the wing forward of the main spar where an uninterrupted airflow was required, with flush rivets. From February 1943 flush riveting was used on the fuselage, affecting all Spitfire variants. In some areas, such as at the rear of the wing and the lower tailplane skins, the top was riveted and the bottom fixed by brass screws which tapped into strips of spruce bolted to
14592-497: 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. In the redesign the change was made from Vickers machine guns to .303 in (7.7 mm) Brownings) , and the fuel tankage dropped to 75 gallons from 94. On 5 March 1936,
14744-478: The inner end of the wings. This wing was predominantly fabric-covered, like the fuselage, although some lightweight metal sheets were used on the inner wing and its leading edge . The majority of the flight control surfaces , such as the Frise-type ailerons , also had fabric coverings. An all-metal, stressed-skin wing of duraluminium (a DERD specification similar to AA2024) was introduced in April 1939 and
14896-450: The late summer of 1940". Present at the meeting was Squadron Leader Ralph Sorley of the Air Ministry's Operational Requirements branch, who played an important role in the decision. In November 1934, the Air Ministry issued Specification F.5/34 which called for new fighter aircraft to be armed with a total of eight guns. However, by this time, work had progressed too far to immediately modify the planned four-gun installation. By January 1935,
15048-646: The later marks, although they were faster than the earlier ones, were also much heavier, so did not handle so well. You did not have such positive control over them. One test of manoeuvrability was to throw her into a flick-roll and see how many times she rolled. With the Mark II or the Mark V one got two-and-a-half flick-rolls, but the Mark IX was heavier and you got only one-and-a-half. With the later and still heavier versions, one got even less. The essence of aircraft design
15200-432: The lead. Mölders and Leutnant Hans von Hahn shot down the Hurricanes of Sergeant R. M. Perry and J. Winn for no loss. In May 1940, Nos. 3, 79 and 504 Squadrons reinforced the earlier units as Germany's Blitzkrieg gathered momentum. On 10 May, the first day of the Battle of France , Flight Lieutenant R. E. Lovett and Flying Officer "Fanny" Orton , of 73 Squadron, were the first RAF pilots to engage enemy aircraft in
15352-571: The limits of its performance. This washout was first featured in the wing of the Type 224, and became a consistent feature in subsequent designs leading to the Spitfire. The complex wing design, especially the precision required to manufacture the vital spar and leading-edge structures, caused some major delays in the production of the Spitfire at first. The problems increased when the work was put out to subcontractors, most of whom had never dealt with metal-structured, high-speed aircraft. By June 1939, most of these problems had been resolved, and production
15504-466: The lower ribs. The removable wing tips were made up of duralumin-skinned spruce formers. At first, the ailerons, elevators, and rudder were fabric-covered, but once combat experience showed that fabric-covered ailerons were impossible to use at high speeds a light alloy replaced the fabric, enhancing control throughout the speed range. In 1934, Mitchell and the design staff decided to use a semi-elliptical wing shape to solve two conflicting requirements;
15656-536: The main spar, preventing the wings from twisting. Mitchell has sometimes been accused of copying the wing shape of the Günter brothers -designed Heinkel He 70 , which first flew in 1932, but as Beverley Shenstone , the aerodynamicist on Mitchell's team, explained: "Our wing was much thinner and had quite a different section to that of the Heinkel. In any case, it would have been simply asking for trouble to have copied
15808-432: The main undercarriage units being housed in recesses in the wing. Hinged telescopic Vickers-built legs are attached to the bottom boom of the wing's forward spar, but with a angled pivot to allow the strut to be perpendicular to the thrust line when extended and angle rearwards when retracted to clear the forward spar. A hydraulic jack actuated the undercarriage. Two separate hydraulic systems, one being power-operated and
15960-558: The major theatres of the Second World War. The Hurricane originated from discussions between RAF officials and aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm about a proposed monoplane derivative of the Hawker Fury biplane in the early 1930s. Despite an institutional preference for biplanes and lack of interest by the Air Ministry , Hawker refined its monoplane proposal, incorporating several innovations which became critical to wartime fighter aircraft, including retractable landing gear and
16112-457: The military, who favoured the biplane's simplicity and manoeuvrability. Mitchell's design aims were to create a well-balanced, high-performance fighter aircraft capable of fully exploiting the power of the Merlin engine, while being relatively easy to fly. At the time, with France as an ally , and Germany thought to be the most likely future opponent, no enemy fighters were expected to appear over Great Britain. German bombers would have to fly to
16264-510: The more numerous Hurricane flew more sorties resisting the Luftwaffe , but the Spitfire captured the public's imagination as the main RAF fighter, 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
16416-567: The more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry ordered Hawker's Interceptor Monoplane in late 1934, and the prototype Hurricane K5083 performed its maiden flight on 6 November 1935. The Hurricane went into production for the Air Ministry In June 1936 and entered squadron service in December 1937. Its manufacture and maintenance were eased by using conventional construction methods so that squadrons could perform many major repairs without external support. The plane
16568-403: The necessary strength. But near the root the wing had to be thick enough to accommodate the retracted undercarriages and the guns ... Mitchell was an intensely practical man ... The ellipse was simply the shape that allowed us the thinnest possible wing with room inside to carry the necessary structure and the things we wanted to cram in. And it looked nice. The wing section used was from
16720-617: The new wing could give an increase in speed of 55 mph (48 kn; 89 km/h) over the Spitfire Mk 21. The new wing was initially fitted to a Spitfire Mk XIV. Later, a new fuselage was designed, with the new fighter becoming the Supermarine Spiteful . The Rolls Royce engine's designers deliberately chose a carburettor for the Merlin engine: Sir Stanley Hooker explained in his autobiography that "the Germans paid
16872-439: The next month, other raids were mounted, until, on 26 September 1940, both factories were destroyed, with 92 people killed and a large number injured. Most of the casualties were experienced aircraft-production workers. Fortunately for the future of the Spitfire, many of the production jigs and machine tools had already been relocated by 20 September, and steps were being taken to disperse production to small facilities throughout
17024-411: The opening months of the war were characterised by little air activity in general, there were sporadic engagements and aerial skirmishes between the two sides. On 30 October 1939 Hurricanes saw action over France. That day, Pilot Officer P. W. O. "Boy" Mould of 1 Squadron, flying Hurricane L1842, shot down a Dornier Do 17 P from 2(F)/123. The German aircraft, sent to photograph Allied airfields close to
17176-460: The other hand-operated, are present for the deployment and retraction of the undercarriage; in the event of both failing, pilots can release the retaining catches holding the undercarriage in place, deploying the wheels to the 'down' position using weight alone. A wide wheel-track was used to allow for considerable stability during ground movements and to enable tight turns to be performed. The prototype and early production Hurricanes were fitted with
17328-399: The propeller unit, to the tail unit attachment frame. The first four frames supported the glycol header tank and engine cowlings. Frame five, to which the engine bearers were secured, supported the weight of the engine and its accessories. This was a strengthened double frame which also incorporated the fireproof bulkhead, and in later versions of the Spitfire, the oil tank. This frame also tied
17480-485: The prototype ( K5054 ) , fitted with a fine-pitch propeller to give more power for takeoff, took off on its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome (later Southampton Airport). At the controls was Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers , chief test pilot for Vickers, who is quoted as saying, "don't touch anything" on landing. This eight-minute flight came four months after the maiden flight of the contemporary Hurricane. K5054
17632-514: The prototype for the RAF. 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. A week later, on 3 June 1936, the Air Ministry placed an order for 310 Spitfires, at a cost of £ 1,395,000. before the A&;AEE had issued any formal report. Interim reports were later issued on
17784-576: The prototype was transferred to RAF Martlesham Heath , Suffolk , to participate in initial service trials under the direction of Squadron Leader D.F. Anderson. Sammy Wroath, later to be the founding commandant of the Empire Test Pilots' School , was the RAF test pilot for the Hurricane: his report was favourable, stating that: "The aircraft is simple and easy to fly and has no apparent vices" and proceeded to praise its control response. In
17936-404: The radiator under the starboard wing was halved in size and the intercooler radiator housed alongside. Under the port wing, a new radiator fairing housed a square oil cooler alongside of the other half-radiator unit. The two radiator flaps were now operated automatically by a thermostat . Another wing feature was its washout . The trailing edge of the wing twisted slightly upward along its span,
18088-432: The rated altitude of one or both supercharger blowers. Then I would make a careful check of the power output from the engine, calibrated for height and temperature ... If all appeared satisfactory, I would then put her into a dive at full power and 3,000 rpm, and trim her to fly hands and feet off at 460 mph (740 km/h) IAS (Indicated Air Speed). Personally, I never cleared a Spitfire unless I had carried out
18240-482: The rejection of the P.V.3 proposal, Camm started work on a new design involving a cantilever monoplane arrangement with a fixed undercarriage, armed with four machine guns and powered by the Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine. The original 1934 armament specifications for what evolved into the Hurricane were for a similar armament fitment to the Gloster Gladiator : four machine guns; two in the wings and two in
18392-488: The standard wing tips were replaced by wooden fairings which reduced the span by 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m). The wing tips used spruce formers for most of the internal structure with a light alloy skin attached using brass screws. The light alloy split flaps at the trailing edge of the wing were also pneumatically operated via a finger lever on the instrument panel. Only two positions were available; fully up or fully down (85°). Flaps were normally lowered only during
18544-413: The surprise! There was no sudden surge of acceleration, but with a thunderous roar from the exhausts just ahead on either side of the windscreen, only a steady increase in speed... In retrospect that first Hurricane sortie was a moment of elation, but also of relief. Apart from the new scale of speeds that the pilot had to adapt to, the Hurricane had all the qualities of its stable, secure biplane predecessor
18696-430: The tail, and incorporated several lightening holes to reduce their weight as much as possible without weakening them. The U-shaped frame 20 was the last frame of the fuselage proper and the frame to which the tail unit was attached. Frames 21, 22 and 23 formed the fin; frame 22 incorporated the tailwheel opening and frame 23 was the rudder post. Before being attached to the main fuselage, the tail unit frames were held in
18848-452: The theoretical aileron reversal speed was increased to 825 mph (717 kn; 1,328 km/h). Alongside the redesigned wing, Supermarine also experimented with the original wing, raising the leading edge by 1 inch (25 mm), with the hope of improving pilot view and reducing drag. This wing was tested on a modified F Mk 21, also called the F Mk 23, (sometimes referred to as "Valiant" rather than "Spitfire"). The increase in performance
19000-556: The top speed was just 330 mph (528 km/h), little faster than Sydney Camm 's new Merlin-powered Hurricane. 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
19152-522: The two squadrons involved) to suit local circumstances. The Hurricane had its first combat action on 21 October 1939, at the start of the Phoney War . That day, "A" Flight of 46 Squadron took off from North Coates satellite airfield, on the Lincolnshire coast, and was directed to intercept a formation of nine Heinkel He 115 B floatplanes from 1/KüFlGr 906, searching for ships to attack in
19304-575: The type at Brooklands from December 1937 to October 1942 and Langley from October 1939 to July 1944), while Hawker's sister company, the Gloster Aircraft Company , constructed 2,750. The Austin Aero Company completed 300 Hurricanes. Canada Car and Foundry produced 1,451 Hurricanes. However those shipped to Britain were often incomplete airframes and about 80% were delivered without an engine. In 1939, production of 100 Hurricanes
19456-405: The wing needed to be thin to avoid creating too much drag , but it had to be thick enough to house the retractable undercarriage, armament, and ammunition. An elliptical planform is the most efficient aerodynamic shape for an untwisted wing, leading to the lowest amount of induced drag . The ellipse was skewed so that the centre of pressure, which occurs at the quarter- chord position, aligned with
19608-566: The wood and fabric covering without exploding. Even if one of the steel tubes were damaged, the repair work required was relatively simple and could be done by ground crew at the airfield. Damage to a stressed skin structure, as used by the Spitfire, required more specialised equipment to repair. The old-fashioned structure also permitted the assembly of Hurricanes with relatively basic equipment under field conditions. Crated Hurricanes were assembled at Takoradi in West Africa and flown across
19760-402: The workforce continually threatened strikes or "slow downs" until their demands for higher wages were met. In spite of promises that the factory would be producing 60 per week starting in April, by May 1940, Castle Bromwich had not yet built its first Spitfire. On 17 May, Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook telephoned Lord Nuffield and manoeuvred him into handing over control of
19912-415: 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 developed the Spitfire's distinctive elliptical wing (designed by Beverley Shenstone ) with innovative sunken rivets to have the thinnest possible cross-section, achieving
20064-445: Was 73 Squadron on 10 September 1939, followed shortly by the other three. A little later, 607 and 615 Squadrons joined them. Owing to the Hurricane's rugged construction, ease of maintenance and repair in the field, and its docile landing and take-off characteristics, coupled with a wide-track undercarriage, it was selected to go to France as the principal RAF fighter. Two Hurricane squadrons, No. 1 and No. 73 , formed 67 Wing of
20216-481: Was accepted for service. 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 6 ft (1.8 m). This design was submitted to the Air Ministry in July 1934, but
20368-437: Was aided by a retractable " stirrup " mounted below the trailing edge of the port wing. This was linked to a spring-loaded hinged flap which covered a handhold on the fuselage, just behind the cockpit. When the flap was shut, the footstep retracted into the fuselage. In addition, both wing roots were coated with strips of non-slip material. An advantage of the steel-tube structure was that cannon shells could pass right through
20520-466: Was built at Star Road, Caversham in Reading. The drawing office in which all Spitfire designs were drafted was moved to Hursley Park , near Winchester . This site also had an aircraft assembly hangar where many prototype and experimental Spitfires were assembled, but since it had no associated aerodrome, no Spitfires ever flew from Hursley. Four towns and their satellite airfields were chosen to be
20672-434: 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),
20824-414: 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. 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 Spitfire was a very capable aircraft, but not perfect. The rudder was oversensitive, and
20976-495: Was his 13-year-old daughter Hazel Hill . Of the decision to place eight machine guns in fighters, Claude Hilton Keith , at the time assistant director of armament research and development, said "The battle was brisk and was carried into very high quarters before the implementing authority was given. My Branch had made out a sound case for 8-gun fighters and if this recommendation had not been accepted and we had been content with half-measures, it might indeed have gone ill for us during
21128-562: Was initiated in Yugoslavia by Zmaj and Rogožarski . Of these, 20 were built by Zmaj by April 1941. Recognising that the supply of British-made Merlin engines might not be guaranteed, it was decided to fit one of the Yugoslavian Hurricanes with a Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine instead. This aircraft was flown in 1941. In 1938, a contract for 80 Hurricanes was placed with Fairey's Belgian subsidiary Avions Fairey SA for
21280-526: Was later adapted to house integral fuel tanks of various sizes — a feature patented by Vickers-Supermarine in 1938. The airflow through the main radiator was controlled by pneumatic exit flaps. In early marks of the Spitfire (Mk I to Mk VI), the single flap was operated manually using a lever to the left of the pilot's seat. When the two-stage Merlin was introduced in the Spitfire Mk IX , the radiators were split to make room for an intercooler radiator;
21432-551: Was minimal and this experiment was abandoned. Supermarine developed a new laminar-flow wing based on new aerofoil profiles developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the United States, with the objective of reducing drag and improving performance. These laminar-flow airfoils were the Supermarine 371-I used at the root and the 371-II used at the tip. Supermarine estimated that
21584-484: Was no longer held up by a lack of wings. All the main flight controls were originally metal structures with fabric covering. Designers and pilots felt that having ailerons which required a degree of effort to move at high speed would avoid unintended aileron reversal, throwing the aircraft around and potentially pulling the wings off. Air combat was also felt to take place at relatively low speeds and high-speed manoeuvring would be physically impossible. Flight tests showed
21736-422: Was not accepted. 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
21888-477: Was rapidly procured prior to the outbreak of the Second World War; in September 1939, the RAF had 18 Hurricane-equipped squadrons in service. It was relied upon to defend against German aircraft operated by the Luftwaffe, including dogfighting with Messerschmitt Bf 109s in multiple theatres of action. The Hurricane was developed through several versions: bomber-interceptors, fighter-bombers , and ground support aircraft as well as fighters. Versions designed for
22040-741: Was received; this was followed by the purchase of a production licence for the Hurricane by Yugoslavia. Yugoslavian Hurricanes saw action against the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 by the Axis powers . To the end of August 1939, 14 Hurricanes had been sent to Poland (SS Lassel left Liverpool on 30 August 1939 heading to Constanza in Romania, these planes never reached Poland and ultimately were sold to Turkey ), seven ex-RAF Hurricanes had been sent to South Africa, while another 13 ex-RAF Hurricanes were sent to Turkey, 13 Hurricanes had been built for Belgium, 21 for Canada including one as
22192-618: Was reworked with the PV.12, following detailed work working drawings of the "Interceptor Monoplane" were begun in May 1934. The complete design was presented to the Air Ministry on 4 September. Camm's initial submission in response to the earlier fighter specification F.7/30 was a development of the Fury, the Hawker P.V.3 , However, the P.V.3 was not among the proposals which the Air Ministry selected to be built as prototype to official contract. After
22344-451: Was somewhat lower than that of some contemporary fighters. The Royal Aircraft Establishment noted that, at 400 mph (350 kn; 640 km/h) indicated airspeed , roughly 65% of aileron effectiveness was lost due to wing twist. The new wing of the Spitfire F Mk 21 and its successors was designed to help alleviate this problem. Its stiffness was increased by 47%, and a new aileron design using piano hinges and geared trim tabs meant
22496-726: Was the first to clash with a Messerschmitt Bf 109 . After the dogfight, he came back with five holes in his fuselage. Flying Officer Cobber Kain , a New Zealander, was responsible for 73 Squadron's first victory, on 8 November 1939 while stationed at Rouvres . He went on to become one of the RAF's first fighter aces of the war, being credited with 16 kills. On 22 December, the Hurricanes in France suffered their first losses: three, while trying to intercept an unidentified aircraft between Metz and Thionville , were jumped by four Bf 109Es from III./JG 53, with their Gruppenkommandeur , Spanish Civil War ace Captain Werner Mölders , in
22648-445: Was the subject of a Luftwaffe daylight raid, but the bombs missed their target and hit a nearby school. All production aircraft were flight tested before delivery. During the Second World War, Jeffrey Quill was Vickers Supermarine's chief test pilot, in charge of flight testing all aircraft types built by Vickers Supermarine. He oversaw a group of 10 to 12 pilots responsible for testing all developmental and production Spitfires built by
22800-419: Was to subcontract the work. Although outside contractors were supposed to be involved in manufacturing many important Spitfire components, especially the wings, Vickers-Armstrongs (the parent company) was reluctant to see the Spitfire being manufactured by outside concerns, and was slow to release the necessary blueprints and subcomponents. As a result of the delays in getting the Spitfire into full production,
22952-402: Was typically equipped for flying under both day and night conditions, being provided with navigation lights, Harley landing lights , complete blind-flying equipment, and two-way radios . Upon its entry to service, much of the performance data was intentionally concealed from the general public, but it was known that the type possessed a speed range of 6:1. A simple steel tube structure supported
23104-420: Was used for all of the later marks. "The metal skinned wings allowed a diving speed that was 80 mph (130 km/h) higher than the fabric-covered ones. They were very different in construction but were interchangeable with the fabric-covered wings; one trials Hurricane, L1877 , was even flown with a fabric-covered port wing and metal-covered starboard wing. The great advantage of the metal-covered wings over
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