5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Supermarine Spitfire - Even if You’re an Expert

Being a Brit and an aviation nut, I have very strong feelings for the Spitfire.
In this video, I look at 5 things you might not have known about this beautiful aircraft, including when it had to fight against itself!

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Welcome to my channel where I share my love of history and aviation. I first fell in love with military aviation when reading Biggles books as a boy, then I studied history at university. I like finding interesting stories and sharing them with others.

I also followed this passion into the real world and managed to get a Private Pilot's Licence on 10th May 2014.

I'll share my gameplay from the IL2 Sturmovik Great Battles series as well as the Cliffs of Dover series and DCS series too, to give my stories drama. Feel free to subscribe, like and comment!

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⏱️ Timestamp:
0:00 The Supermarine Spitfire
0:58 The Spitfire's in-built stall warning
3:11 The first jet Killer - A Tale of 401 Squadron RCAF
4:53 Operation Big Ben
7:33 Spits vs Spits: Trouble in the Middle East
14:10 The true cost of building a Spitfire in WW2

⭐ Some recommended other channels are:

#aviationhistory#history

[animelovers]

One key feature about the wings is thanks to the way they were designed, the spit could glide for a good few miles if it ran out of fuel. I'm proud to say i had 2 family members who worked on the spit at the woolston supermarine spitfire factory as it was called then here in Southampton and that was my great nan and great aunt, my grandad's mum and aunt. Sadly i never got the chance to meet them as they both died in the 80s a good few years before i was born. In the solent sky museum we have a spit that was used for night fighting, the dials and things still are illuminated to this day which actually prevented me when i was younger from sitting inside because of the risk of radiation they said.

[gmacs]

Being sneaky buggers, the War Department issued information on V2 strikes but placed the impact point several miles from the actual site. This led to the Germans adjusting their telemetry making the next launches fall short.

[alanelesstravelled]

Mutt Summers was instructing the ground crew not to touch anything because there was a problem with the rudder of K5054 (never fully resolved) and he wanted to check it out later, not as most people think that he meant the aircraft was perfect as it was.

[Eo_Tunun]

I consider the spy story with Alexander Lippisch bogus. The insight that an elyptical lift distribution is ideal is Prandtl's theorem of ideal lift distribution which had been published in the Twenties and was commonly available aircraft engineerig knowledge.
The stall characteristics of the Spitfire's wing is in good part down to the choice of its aerofoil. The NACA 22-series aerofoils stall very gently with turbulence spreading from the trailing edge forwards gradually. As turbulence hits the aileron, the stick starts shaking sideways, then you get the entire plane's buffeting. Many signals about what the plane is doing and going to do a pilot can read without looking at the instruments. This wing section also helped the Spitfire to have a good L/D in high-lift situations which determines the bank angle a plane can maintain with its engine power. Here the Spitfire was superb! This, together with her good near stall caracteristics, was what gave her the abillity to out-turn nearly every fighter plane of her time.
Same good stall characteristicsg go for the Clark Y (Hawker Hurricane) and the Naca 24-series (Hawker Typhoon). Actually, this characteristic of gentle stalls rather is a trademark of good engineering and its absence can be viewed as negligence or cutting corners by the designer. An example for the opposite is the FW-190. It had the NACA23015 at the wing root to a 23012 at th tip. The 23-series stalls without a warning, thus the 190's flic manoevers which experienced pilots could use to escape enemies on their sixes. I knew a Messerschmitt 109 veteran who told me about this also being one of the 190's Achilles' heels when there were bigger bullet holes in the wings. They had a tendency to start stalls on individual wings, causing the planes to fall into spins on approach to landing violently and without further warnings.

There were more factors to the Spitfire's success: Mitchel built in room for growth into her design. For example he was told that the flaps were slightly oversized for a plane the size and weight of the Mk.I to which he replied: "When the development progresses the plane won't get lighter, so that will be good."
The relative thickness of the wing was 12% at the root, thinning out to 9% at the tip. The very thin wing was what made the plane very responsive with pitch control and at the same time gave it few issues with compressibility effects (Which were unknown at the time the Spit was designed, so this was a lucky strike). At the same time the wing was still thick enough to not develop nasty stall characteristics at low speeds. Moreover the superb reliability and good power-to-weight ratio of the Merlins and Griffons has to be taken into account. The engine added a lot to the Spitfire's and Seafire's excellent safety record.
Of all the Twentytwo-Something thousand planes of all marks built and flown in all kinds of conditions including carrier operation, only some 800 planes were lost without enemy interference.
Of the 109 E variant, some 3500 were built and nearly 800 lost to accidents, and that without them ever seeing the hazardous carrier decks!
High quality of production is to be added to the list of the Spitty's qualities.

[mrjockt]

I recently purchased a DVD called “Royal Air Force in the ‘50s”, in it is a clip of what was apparently one of the very last Spitfire combat missions carried out by the R.A.F., it showed Spitfire Mk.XVIII’s carrying out ground attack missions with rockets in Malaya.

[nicksykes]

My father flew in 208 Sqd in Italy in 44/45. 208 sqd was attached to the USAAF 15th at the time, and my father was awarded the American DFC, for finding and photographing the firing sight of the railway gun known as Anzio Annie.

[michaelA]

Excellent video. Usually I see the 'X-number of things you won't know about Y' title around YouTube and know the info better than the video explains it, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn something.👍

[rapido]

I used to work with a guy - who had a part time job with a wealthy aircraft enthusiast in the 1980’s He came into work excitedly and told me that his employer had bought two brand new spitfires from the Israeli Air Force. They were in ‘kit form’ in crates. All the original tools required to assemble the planes were provided as well - wrapped in greased paper, etc. They must have been expensive.

[z_actual]

Shenstone was a Canadian, and he was never employed by the British govt as a spy.
He simply worked for Junkers, and became familiar with future trends in aerodynamics and wing design theory. When he went back toe Britain he eventually arrived at Supermarine having failed to get a place with Vickers, Westlands or Hawkers, his first choices. The elliptic theory had already been looked at by Supermarine, and was in the process of being proposed by Ernest Mansbridge, Joe Smith and Alfred Faddy but of course Shenstone had a lot to contribute.

[deedorothypapineau]

Great video! My father flew Spitfires in WWII and had many tales to tell.

[Yohann]

Awesome title! No clickbait, no insult to aficionados. Keep it up!

[johnstirling]

Slick Goodlin was to have been the test pilot to take the Bell X1 through the sound barrier, but due to his excessive financial demands, (among other things) the army took over the test programme and Chuck Yeager became famous as the record breaker.

[richardwaring]

For ultimate contrast compare one of Reginald Mitchell's other designs, the Supermarine Walrus. It was a flying boat biplane that saved many a ditched aviator's life.

[CaptainVasiliArkhipov]

I recall a documentary about the designer of the spitfire, he made revolutionary wing strength with a leaf spring type of design. Expecting the battle of Britain a couple years ahead of time really motivated him. He died before the battle but not until he was finished with the design, an older black & white documentary, I should remember his name. The variable pitch propeller was ready only weeks before the battle, without this, a series disadvantage would have plagued the RAF.

[plunder]

My mum got chased down the street by a V1, she hid in a doorway, but the buzz bomb flew on. That flap valve sound was terrifying.

[cbthunderpig]

So much history left behind, great video, glad to see the enthusiastic comments as well.

[colderwar]

I flew a MKIX this year. The main thing you need to know about the Spit is that she's a beautiful girl who will do everything you ask as long as you treat her with respect.
For the usual kind of flying, you'll maybe be moving the control column about half an inch. She flatters your flying abilities and makes you seem like a much better pilot than you are.
Basically everything that the RAF veterans told you about the Spit is true.

[Aengus]

Raymond Baxter went on to be a BBC TV presenter especially of the RAE Farnborough air show from the 50s onwards. He's also known as the presenter of the BBC's popular science program "Tomorrow's World" from 65 to 77.

[alanruyten]

Nice vid! Not sure if you know, but the Fl/Lt Raymond Baxter you mention was a well known BBC TV presenter fronting Tomorrow’s World for 12 years. As well as his flying he was also a keen rally driver. In March 1945 Baxter took part in the 6 Spitfire daylight raid on the Shell-Mex building in The Hague then thought to be the V1 & V2 Operational HQ. He was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the partly successful raid.

[Calvertfilm]

Interesting as ever. I think the Raymond Baxter you refer to at 6:52 was the Tomorrows World TV presenter too.