What made the Spitfire so special?

[MDE_never_dies]

“The guns would jam. Another feature of the Mk 1 Spitfire….”

[iskandartaib]

The cloth covered ailerons were replaced with metal skinned ones fairly early (in 1941 IIRC - there's a long section about it in Quill's book). This had the effect of increasing the Spitfire's rate of roll, especially at high speeds. When the news got out there was a crowd of Squadron Leaders and Wing Commanders flying to Castle Bromwich in an effort to get ahead of the queue, supposedly led by Douglas Bader.

[joebloggs]

Irish linen featured heavily in the Battle of Britain

[JimmySailor]

The wing is cool, but the reason the spitfire was such a successful design was it’s weight. It was 800lbs lighter than the BF109 at full loading. 6, 700 lbs vs 7, 500 lbs. it was 2, 000 lbs lighter than the Hurricane.

[mijimonmaster]

One of the most beautiful looking and sounding pieces of engineering, ever

[timbirch]

Looked stunning, and had performance to match.

They even *sound* gorgeous.

[timhollon]

I've always admired the Spitfire, my first model I built, as a young boy, was a Spitfire

[olliej]

I will never understand what the back of a fork is like.

[lucky_overdrive]

“I don’t care what shape the wings are as long as the guns can fit in them!” - Winston Churchill

[adrianmonk]

The RAF, Never had So Many, Owed So Much, to So Few. The Supermarine Spitfire was powered by a 29L Rolls Royce Merlin (small hunting hawk) with Supercharger. The Hawker Hurricane fighter plane also protected the English Channel. The BF 109 Messerschmidmtt had a sparkplugs down, Mercedes Benz 35.7L engine with Supercharger.

[robertbernard]

Those look like they are incredible flying masterpieces

[dusankocisevic]

One of the most gorgeous EVER
(and Mosquito ofcourse)

[XxBloggs]

The original elliptical wing was designed in Germany and R.J. Mitchell bought the design back with him after a stint working there in the 1930's.

[erzahler]

The Supermarine Spitfire was an elegant fighter, one Great Britain needed early in the war. There is a good docudrama about R. J. Mitchell, the aircraft's designer, made in 1942 or '43, called "Spitfire."

Mitchell was approached by the RAF, who knew about his racing aircraft, to design an air-superiority fighter. He, along with his newly-formed company Supermarine, was the first British builder to design a viable single-wing, monocoque aircraft which he used for racing. He later incorporated elements of his racing aircraft into the Spitfire.

I don't know the validity of this statement, but I have been told by members of the CAF "Ghost Squadron, " that North American Aviation used design elements of the Spitfire, and the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (first flown with the Flying Tigers battle group), to design the P-51 Mustang.

[mdrokunujjaman]

A spitfire's advantage is it's wing and the disadvantage is also the wing.

[battlebooms]

I really love both the Spitfire and the Me-109. And I really love that the community doesnt start stupid hate about it. Everyone just appreciates both fighters to be good.

[YalpegAlorotom]

What?? "Press the side of it, it's like the back of a fork." As a native English speaker I have no idea what he is trying to communicate. ...the back of a fork?

[Milkman]

I was given the opportunity to sit in a spitfire this morning. A 1945 example that never saw the war, but even still there was something quite heavy about experiencing what that cockpit felt like.

[stevestruthers]

The Spitfire is arguably one of the most beautiful and graceful-looking fighter aircraft of the war. Always my favourite.

[barryjatkinson]

We get Spits flying over almost every day in the summer. Despite it being a common sight I have to look up every time :)