Conversation Starter?

Originally posted by Vets_Dottir
KEITH: Hmmm ... I think maybe I was in error regards that Spitfire. Darn. I looked at the photo (black and white from a home made CD) and a writeup says "Supermarine 224" perhaps taken 1934?
a number on the plane MIGHT be 2857??? hard to make it out. That sound like a Spitfire???

Another old thang ([photo) is a "Supermarine Walrus"

I obviously don't know one plane from another but some of these older photos especially, are pretty interesting.

The 224 was the original, unofficial Spitfire. An unsuccessful thing to spec F7/30 with fixed undercarriage and cranked wings a bit like a Stuka, it first flew on 19 Feb 1934. RJ (Mitchell) wanted it called "Shrew"

K5054 to spec F37/34 which is the Spitfire of history first flew from Southampton - Eastleigh Apt (about 8 miles from where I sit now) on 5 March 1936 at 16:35, Mutt Summers was again at the controls and flew for just 8 mins reporting he wanted nothing touched after landing.

Popular history assumes this to mean it was perfect first time whereas the truth being that he wanted nothing altered until a complete evaluation, without any variables, had been accomplished.

Regrettably the aircraft (K5054) was totally destroyed on 2 September 1939 in a crash at Farnborough where the pilot, F/Lt White, was also killed.

Also regrettably in near govt enforced Europeanisation and national identity denial, this first flight event and the importance of Sept 15th also is heavily suppressed, however, it is remembered and celebrated by the English Nationals (Officially regarded as far right xenophobic fascists) of The Shirrell Heath Long Range Display Group comprising a DTB F15, 2.5 M-Cs and a 623.

May also be worth remembering that the BoB was largely Hurricanes in fact and may have been quite different had not a bit of ultimate mechanical serendipity found the US Hamilton-Standard two-pitch propellor had by coincidence a precisely mating splined boss that fitted the Merlin reduction case without modification. Those still flying with fixed wooden props were virtually outclassed by the opposition.

R.