Eighty-years-ago, the Supermarine Spitfire – the British fighter aircraft that became the iconic plane of the Battle of Britain – made its inaugural flight.
On the evening of March 5 1936, Captain Joseph ‘Mutt’ Summers – chief test pilot at Supermarine’s parent company Vickers-Armstrongs – took off in the Type 300 K5054 prototype for an eight minute flight from Eastleigh airfield in Hampshire.
The Spitfire was the creation of engineer RJ Mitchell, who had been asked by Vickers-Armstrongs chairman Sir Robert McLean to design a plane to meet ‘Air Ministry Specification F.7/30’ which sought a fast, manoeuvrable fighter to replace the out-dated models then in service with the RAF.
With its characteristically thin elliptical wings, battery of four machine guns and powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the all-metal Type 300 soon caught the eye of the ministry, who – concerned at the news the Germany had revived its air force – co-funded its development.
Three months after the first test flight, the Air Ministry put in an order worth £1.25 million for 310 Spitfires, the first of thousands to be built.
And four years later the plane was to play a vital role in repelling the might of the Luftwaffe, capturing the public’s imagination during the Battle of Britain and establishing ‘Spitfire’ as a legend of the skies.
Today, there are only a handful of serviceable Spitfires left in the world.
But one place that keeps the heritage alive is Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre.
Montrose was home to No8 Flying Training School which opened in 1936 to train pilots for potential war. Many of the men who got their wings at Montrose went on to fly Spitfires, including some of the great Spitfire “Aces”. Between 1936 and the Battle of Britain in 1940, about 500 pilots had got their wings at Montrose.
In the early stages of the Battle of Britain, it was also the base for No 603 Squadron, one of the first to be equipped with Spitfires. Its airfield defence role saw it in action against Luftwaffe bombers flying from Norway.
And in 1942, the people of Arbroath famously raised £5000 to buy their own Spitfire. A full scale replica of the ‘Red Lichtie’ now stands proudly at the heritage centre.
Alan Doe, a former aeronautical engineer who now works as a volunteer at Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre, wasn’t born until three weeks after that first Spitfire flight in 1936.
Yet as a young child, he vividly remembers seeing the contrails of German bombers as they targeted the Spitfire factories in his home city of Southampton in 1940, killing at least 100 Supermarine employees.
And it was those early experiences of the war that influenced his decision to go into aircraft manufacturing when he left school.
“I didn’t see any aircraft per se, “ the 79-year-old told The Courier on a tour of Montrose Air Station. “But the noise when the night bombing was onwe got quite a hammering in Southampton.”
Alan’s home city was the birthplace of the Spitfire. Both Supermarine factories were destroyed during those early raids.
“They couldn’t fail to find them, “he smiled whistfully.
”The Germans just needed to fly up Southampton Water, turn right at the first river which is the Itchin and there were the factories the Woolston Works and the Itchin Works. They were within a quarter of a mile of each other and they just flattened both of them.
“About 80 to 100 Supermarine employees were killed during those raids. That meant there was a huge hiatus in Spitfire production and that led to a dispersal programme of production right through the south of England. They commandeered laundries, garages anything with a high-ish roof, took them over, and dispersed the production of the Spitfire whilst the shadow factory at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham was being brought on line.”
Alan was just five when his father was killed. He was in the navy and his ship was torpedoed. His mother remarried and moved to Edinburgh, where he went to school.
After a spell as an apprentice with Supermarine, he graduating from Glasgow University with a degree in aeronautical engineering, going on to work in the design and build of helicopters. But thinking back, it was Spitfires that influenced him to enter the aircraft industry.
“There’s nothing like the Spitfire, “he added.
“It’s just the look of it then the noise when you hear one flying with the Merlin engine. It just looks so right. It just gets into you. It gets into everyone, even those who know nothing about aircraft! A large part of it is the elliptical wing. It’s such a graceful shape.”
Alan doesn’t regard the Spitfire as any more innovative than the German 109.
In his opinion, the Spitfire’s limited firepower was its weak point.
But what helped win the Battle of Britain was its speed and manoeuvrability.
Dan Paton, 74, a retired university history lecturer who volunteers as historian at Montrose Air Station, said the Spitfire is the one aircraft children instantly recognise.
He said: “We get a lot of kids. We had about 1000 children last year. A lot of them are in school parties and they get free entry.
“P6s and P7s do a Second World War project as part of their curriculum and there’s also been renewed interest in World War One with the centenary. We are particularly well placed for that because the history of Montrose Air Station goes back to 1913.”
One of the most exciting projects currently under way at Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre is a painstaking £100,000 project to construct a replica aircraft from the First World War. Funded in part by an £82.000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund, it’s a nod to Harvey Kelly of the Montrose-based Royal Flying Corps who, in August 1914, claimed to be the first British pilot to land in France.
Dan, who came up with the idea of building the replica as part of the heritage centre’s ‘First in France project, added: “It’s a BE2A which is the aircraft No 2 squadron was equipped with when it established Royal Flying Corps Montrose in 1913. And it’s the aircraft it took to war at the outbreak of the First World War. There’s been a lot of debate over whether Lt Harvey Kelly, a No 2 Squadron pilot, was the first RFC pilot to land in France at the outbreak of World War One.”
Alan laughed, “It’s being built using original drawings from 1913 which are a nightmare! “
“We’re doing it ourselves and with the help of local businesses. We have a very limited machine shop. There are steel fittings in the aircraft which we cannot do ourselves. We’ve used Reekies in Arbroath. We’ve had a chap in Inverness who’s woven basket work seats for us free of charge other than materials.
“The engine is a separate project. We have one member who is very highly qualified in engines and he is building it from scratch. It’s not entirely being built by ourselves but it has been chiefly ourselves! We started seriously in October 2014 and we are going to be finished by August 12 the glorious 12th! Then it’ll be on display in our ‘First in France’ hangar.
“The Heritage Lottery Fund has funded us to the tune of 82%. We’ve had to find the other money ourselves. Dan got some other money. I think we’ve had some personal contributions as well. We’re still in for about £6000 – £7000 of our own money. But that’s normal for this kind of project. No one will ever give you 100% funding.”