Over the course of the Second World War, the daring fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force were renowned for their bravery in the skies. Most commonly, when people picture the image of a British fighter pilot during the war, they envision a Royal Air Force serviceman in a Supermarine Spitfire, engaged in a dogfight with Luftwaffe fighters.
While the Spitfire did take part in fighting throughout the war, the Supermarine Spitfire did not actually do the bulk of the heavy lifting for the Royal Air Force’s fighting force during the conflict. During the Battle of Britain, the key aerial engagement of the war, Hawker Hurricanes vastly outnumbered the spitfires, with over 50% more squadrons. The Hurricanes also found far more success, shooting down well over half of the enemy aircraft that were destroyed during the battle.
However, in every textbook on military aircraft history, in every promotional poster or movie about the war, the Supermarine Spitfire is far more glorified, akin to the American P-51 Mustang. In this article, we will explore why exactly the Spitfire has become the iconic aircraft of the Royal Air Force’s World War II fighter force.
Some history
Before taking a deeper look at what exactly made the Spitfire so iconic, it is essential to understand the aircraft’s backstory and operational history throughout the war. Throughout a ten-year production run between 1938 and 1948, over 20,000 Spitfires rolled off the assembly lines of manufacturer Supermarine, alongside roughly 2,600 examples of the plane’s naval variant, the Supermarine Seafire.
The Spitfire was designed under the direction of Reginald Mitchell and originated with an earlier design previously used for Supermarine’s racing seaplanes. The Air Ministry was so impressed with the design that it immediately threw its support behind the aircraft and first took to the skies on 5 March 1936.
According to Robert Jackson’s 2006 Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, the Supermarine Spitfire was designed with a few similarities to the Hawker Hurricane, including its primary powerplant, the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry quickly drew up contracts for both the Spitfire and the Hurricane, and the first Spitfires were delivered to the No. 19 Squadron in August 1938.
The Spitfire would see service throughout the war, including in the famous Battle of Britain, during which 361 of 747 Spitfires delivered to the Royal Air Force’s Fighter Command at the time were destroyed. The aircraft would be developed into multiple other variants throughout the conflict, and eventually, the plane entered service across the continent. Specifications for the Spitfire Mk V, the most common production variant, can be seen in the table below:
| Category: | Spitfire Specification: |
|---|---|
| Maximum speed: | 473 miles per hour |
| Service ceiling: | 37,000 feet |
| Maximum range: | 370 miles |
| Weight: | 6,785 pounds |
| Armament: | Two 0.79-inch cannons and four 0.303-inch machine guns embedded in the wings |
Performance weaknesses
Despite often being portrayed by the media as the RAF’s invincible fighter, the Spitfire was undeniably lacking in several key areas. As previously mentioned, the plane was outperformed during the Battle of Britain in terms of enemy aircraft shot down, and nearly half of all Spitfires delivered to the organization at the time of the battle were destroyed.
The plane’s operational challenges were not limited to the earlier stages of the aircraft’s wartime engagements. The Spitfire Mk V, which was expected to be the complete air superiority fighter that the RAF desperately needed at the turn of the 1940s, fell far short of expectations.
