Spitfire Manual 1940

Description

By: Dilip Sarkar

Spitfire! The very word is evocative, the perfect description of a fighter aircraft. The shape and sound of the Spitfire is equally perfect, particularly those marques powered by the legendary Rolls-Royce engine. Look at a Spitfire today and its sleek elliptical shape would not be out  of place on a modern designer’s computer screen – seventy years after it was actually created at a comparatively simple drawing board. That Supermarine designer Reginald Joseph Mitchell’s Spitfire, ever the air show star, should still excite and the deeds of those who went to war in her continue to inspire, can only be a special tribute to everyone connected with this wonderful aircraft.

So what was it about the Spitfire that made it so great? What is it about a vintage aircraft that continue to fascinate us so nearly a century on? What is it about the Merlin’s roar that brings a tear to the eye, a lump to the throat? To understand this phenomenon we need to travel back in time, to a desperately dark period in world history.

To find out, turn the pages and walk down memory lane.