THE SPITFIRE PROTOTYPE

The first "unofficial" Spitfire was a total failure.

The name was also "unofficial" at that stage, Mitchell preferring the name "Shrew"

Despite Reginald Mitchell's tremendous skills it was originally designed to meet the Air Ministry's demands for a new generation of fighter aircraft to replace the ageing existing aircraft designed around the twin gun, open cockpit biplane, the specifications being issued by the Air Ministry in 1931 and annotated F7/30.

Mitchell's original design was for a low cranked monoplane with fixed undercarriage and of an all metal construction with open cockpit and two machine guns in the forward fuselage sides and two mounted in the wing roots, all synchronised to fire through the propeller arc.

This aircraft, designated the Type 224, was flown for the first time on 19 February 1934 in the capable hands of "Mutt" Summers, the chief test pilot for Vickers and Supermarine.

The performance of the aircraft was however far lower than anticipated and the cooling system regularly failed. Despite experimentation with new designs submitted to The Air Ministry in June 1934 under Specification 425a based on the original F7/30 his plans were still turned down.

Mitchell however persevered and developed his original plans still further by designing the new fighter with thinner elliptical wings and a smaller span, a stressed skin construction and a faired cockpit with perspex cover - this was known as the Type 300.

A new engine, the Rolls Royce Merlin, 27 litre PV-12, was to be installed and the Air Ministry, now impressed formalised a contract on 3 January 1935 with the official specification written to suit Mitchell's design being designated F37/34 as a short appendix to the original F7/30 Specification.

By early March of 1936 the prototype, K5054, had completed the ground trials and engine run-up tests and the necessary Aeronautical Inspection Directorate's Certificate had been issued and so The Spitfire was ready for the first flight.

There has been much debate upon the exact date that this flight took place although the Spitfire historian Alfred Price uncovered a hand written report of the expenditure on the Spitfire programme dated 29 February 1936 amounting to £14,637 on which is hand written "flown 5 March 1936".

Bearing in mind that Reginald Mitchell was such a stickler for detail, and the fact that he would have attended the Board meeting on 2 April 1936 at which this certificate was presented, it can be taken that the Spitfire's first flight was on 5 March 1936 at Eastleigh.

Once again the pilot for the new aircraft's first flight was "Mutt" Summers and having flight tested the aircraft for some twenty minutes with a variety of stalls, steep turns, and practice landings at 5,000 feet to ensure he understand the handling characteristics he headed back to Eastleigh.

In his usual apparent manner he stepped from the aircraft and tersely conveyed to the assembled crew that he had found no problems - then he added "I don't want anything touched" - and so the first official Spitfire was born.

Over the next few months further trials were carried out with no major problems and K5054 was delivered to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Martlesham Heath for official trials on 26 May 1936.

The Air Ministry were so impressed with this new fighter aircraft that prior to the full test programme being completed they issued a contract for 310 Spitfires on 3 June 1936.