She’s a Spitfire

Wed 9 March 2011

She’s a Spitfire

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 22:41

On the 5th of March 1936, the Spitfire was taken for its first test flight at Eastleigh Aerodrome. The Spitfire, an iconic RAF aircraft, was initially manufactured at the Supermarine works in Southampton. When that was bombed by the Luftwaffe, Supermarine decentralised production, using a number of smaller workshops to manufacture parts. The parts were collected from dozens of sites around Southampton, including a furniture factory and a bus depot. These were put together for delivery to Eastleigh Aerodrome, now Southampton Airport, so the Spitfire could play its instrumental role in the RAF’s strategy against the Luftwaffe.

As a part of the 75-year anniversary of the plane, the BBC interviewed RAF Spitfire pilot Hank Costain, who first flew a Spitfire in 1942 when he was 19.

BBC News – Spitfire memories for ex-pilot from Dorset

He said: “When you first got into the seat and opened the throttle it felt as if someone had given you a good kick up the bottom and away you went.

“It would do everything you asked of it. Compared to other aircraft it was light on the controls, you could do all the aerobatics and you would come up to speed very quickly.

“If you treated a Spitfire properly, it treated you properly. Treat it roughly or be careless with it and you were in trouble, in that it would do all sorts of things such as ground looping. It also had a very fragile undercarriage and could collapse.”

Ten years later, on the 5th of March 1946, my mother was born. That’s not actually related to the story, I just wanted to take the chance to wish her a happy birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

AND ALSO on the 5th of March 2011, these great photographers were flying high with Saturday Scenes from all around the world: