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The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used into the 1950s both as a front line fighter and in secondary roles. It was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft and was the only Allied fighter in production throughout the war.

The Spitfire was designed as a short-range high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works (since 1928 a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs). He continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith became chief designer. The Spitfire's elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than the Hawker Hurricane and several contemporary fighters.Speed was seen as essential to carry out the mission of home defence against enemy bombers.

During the Battle of Britain there was a public perception that the Spitfire was the RAF fighter of the battle; in fact the more numerous Hurricane actually shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against the Luftwaffe.

After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire became the backbone of RAF Fighter Command and saw action in the European Theatre, Pacific Theatre and the South-East Asian theatre. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service in several roles, including interceptor, photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, carrier-based fighter, and trainer; it was built in many different variants, with two different types of engine and several wing configurations.

The Spitfire will always be compared to its main adversary, the Messerschmitt Bf 109; both followed similar design philosophies of marrying a small, streamlined airframe to a powerful liquid-cooled V12 engine.

Production of some 40 different variants of the Spitfire took place throughout the war and after. They served in every combat area, operating as fighters, fighter-bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and carrier-based fighters with the Royal Navy. Griffon engines replaced Merlins after a time, and the Spitfire XIX reconnaissance version became the fastest of all the wartime Spitfires with a speed of nearly 748 km/h (460 mph). The last Spitfire was built in 1947. As a fighter, at all altitudes it had proved superb, while continuous edges gained firstly by German Bf 109s and Focke Wulfs 190s and then by different versions of the Spitfire led to closely-matched battles throughout the war.

General characteristics (Spitfire Mk Vb)

* Crew: one pilot
* Length: 29 ft 11 in (9.12 m)
* Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
* Height: 11 ft 5 in (3.86 m)
* Wing area: 242.1 ft² (22.48 m²)
* Airfoil: NACA 2209.4(tip)
* Empty weight: 5,090 lb (2,309 kg)
* Loaded weight: 6,622 lb (3,000 kg)
* Max takeoff weight: 6,770 lb (3,071 kg)
* Powerplant: 1× Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 supercharged V12 engine, 1,470 hp at 9,250 ft (1,096 kW at 2,820 m)

Performance

* Maximum speed: 378 mph, (330 kn, 605 km/h)
* Combat radius: 410 nmi (470 mi, 760 km)
* Ferry range: 991 nmi (1,140 mi, 1,840 km)
* Service ceiling: 35,000 ft (11,300 m)
* Rate of climb: 2,665 ft/min (13.5 m/s)
* Wing loading: 24.56 lb/ft² (119.91 kg/m²)
* Power/mass: 0.22 hp/lb (0.36 kW/kg)

Armament

* Guns: Mk I, Mk II, Mk VA
o (VA) 8 × .303in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, 350 rpg


*
o (VB on) 2 × 20 mm (0.787-in) Hispano Mk II cannon, 60 rpg (drum magazine); (VC) 120 rpg (belt loaded, box magazine)
o 4 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, 350 rpg
* Bombs:
o 2 × 250 lb (113 kg) bombs