September 2015 - The Spitfire
Members of the Horndean & District U3A met for their regular monthly meeting on Friday 4th September at Merchistoun Hall. They were entertained by Colin van Geffen about the famous and unforgettable Spitfire.
Colin has an extensive repertoire of expertise covering many aspects of flying and aircraft. For this talk, we chose to hear about the facts and myths associated with our own very locally designed and built much-loved Spitfire. He gave us a closer look at some of the key figures and participants, their successes and failures alongside contemporary and world events and developments within the Supermarine Aviation Company leading to the birth of the Spitfire.
His power-point presentation covered the origin and evolution of the design and the many faces of the Spitfire together with sound effects, especially the memorable sirens of impending air raids. It is well known that R J Mitchell was closely associated with the design of the aircraft and who started with SAC as a draughtsman, became chief designer in 1919 and became chief engineer the following year aged just 24 years. His design for the prototype Spitfire cost £16k. Mitchell recognised the significance of the elliptical wing that had been in use by other designers for many years and he further developed it. The first prototype flew on 5th March 1936 and the first into service was delivered to RAF Fowlmere in 1938.
Mitchell died early at 42 years and was succeeded by Joe Smith in 1937 who took over the design of the Spitfire up until the final mark. He was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Silver Medal in 1950 and died in 1956.
Colin explained that it was a myth that the Spitfire was made of wood, as in fact it was one of the first all metal aircraft. One of the most important aspects of the design was the thin wing. There were 22 different models of the Spitfire (24 mark numbers, but only 22 marks were produced), with a total of 22,120 aircraft produced. During the Battle of Britain in 1940, 370 Spitfires were lost and the Supermarine works at Woolston and Itchen were heavily bombed. Following this, the manufacturing was dispersed to 28 sites, mainly in the South near to Southampton and had 249 direct suppliers.
Colin ignited the members with his inspiring talk with many more facts and figures than I can list here. Obviously a man who is passionate about the world of aircraft! More information can be found on his website www.colinvangeffen.co.uk
Diane Stoner, Speaker Co-ordinator.