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Spitfire on elevator of the carrier USS Wasp 1942 bound for Malta web 01

 Spitfire on elevator of the carrier USS Wasp 1942 bound for Malta web 01

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

This webpage was updated 5th July 2023

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