Supermarine Spitfire

National origin:- United Kingdom

Role:- Fighter, Photo-reconnaissance aircraft

Manufacturer:- Supermarine

Location:- Long Island City, New York, Newark, New Jersey, and, in 1941, in Warminster Township, Pennsylvania, which was then known as NAS Johnsville

Designer:- R. J. Mitchell

First flight:- 5 March 1936

Introduction:- 4 August 1938

Retired:-1961 Irish Air Corps

Primary users:- Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air Forces

Produced between 1938-1948:- 20,351

Unit cost:- £12,604 (£774,905 in 2017) (Estonian order for 12 Spitfires in 1939)

Variants:- Supermarine Seafire, Supermarine Spiteful

Comments given by aces who flew the Spitfire

'...I had seen them flying and admitted I had seen few prettier aircraft...'

P. Richey on Spitfire's

'...If only he knew how proud I felt. At last I had flown a Spitfire. How Beautiful the machine seemed to me, and how alive! A masterpiece of harmony and power, even as I saw her know, motionless. Softly, as one might caress a woman's cheek, I ran my hand over the aluminium of her wings, cold and smooth like a mirror, the wings which had borne me...'

P. Clostermann of the Spitfire

'...We now had Spitfire's. It was a whole new kind of flying: we were one with the machine, and, more important, we had new confidence. For the first time we felt we had a plane that could out-perform the Me 109 and FW 190...

J. Goodson of the Spitfire