The design looked like a winner, reinforced by the maiden flight of the prototype on March, 5, 1936, by test pilot Mutt Summers. ‘I don’t want anything touched,’ he declared once he had landed.
The English government, deeply concerned about the pace of Nazi rearmament, was delighted with the early trials and placed an initial order for 310 Spitfires.
By June 1937, the contract had run into severe difficulties. For all its technical expertise, Supermarine was a relatively small company without the facilities for mass production.
Much of the work therefore had to be farmed out to subcontractors, many of which had little experience in aero engineering. One firm put no fewer than 15,000 queries through to Supermarine in 18 months.
The delays over the delivery forced the resignation of the Air Secretary, Lord Swinton in early 1938.
His successor ordered the creation of a vast Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham.
Warehouses, rolling mills, bus depots, car showrooms, a steamroller works, a strawberry basket factory and a stately home were all commandeered for this purpose.
However, gross mismanagement and a recalcitrant workforce resulted in zero planes completed in the next two years. By June 1940, not a single plane had emerged
A secret inquiry found that there was ‘every evidence of slackness’ and ‘labour is in a very poor state’.
Fortunately, some of the shortfall in production was made up as Supermarine resolved its teething problems, so that by the outbreak of war at least ten RAF squadrons had been equipped with Spitfires.
Nevertheless, the early Castle Bromwich fiasco left a serious deficiency of the plane within Fighter Command on the eve of the Battle of Britain — just when it was needed most.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5269283/How-Spitfire-symbol-national-defiance.html
http://spitfiresite.com/2012/07/castle-bromwich-spitfire-and-lancaster-factory-photos.html
An effective and beautiful combat plane, but also complicated to build and very expensive. Its main opponent, the Messerschmitt, didn't require master craftsmen to build, and cost less. Btw, after the war, RAF pilots flying the Me 109 thought the Spitfire was better - and Luftwaffe pilots flying the Spitfire thought their Messerschmitts were better.
ReplyDeleteEr, the war started in 1939.
ReplyDeletewho said anything about the war? Who? Not me!
DeleteRead what I wrote. I specify that by June 1940, zero were made. However, read about the Battle of Britain, which was July to Oct 1940. By mid August there were only 300 planes a week being made, and Hurricanes outnumbered Spitfires 2 to 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain
Maybe, when you offer to correct me, you could go into detail about what you are countering, and offer a source of info that is online somewhere, and what your point is in trying to correct what I've posted, from the source I list that you too can click on and read, uneditted
Well here it is stated that: "Fortunately, some of the shortfall in production was made up as Supermarine resolved its teething problems, so that by the outbreak of war at least ten RAF squadrons had been equipped with Spitfires."
DeleteBut one paragraph earlier it is stated that: "By June 1940, not a single plane had emerged"
The war started in 1939. So which is it?
Simple. This entire post is all about the Spitfire being made at one facility. Right?
Deletea vast Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham.
Warehouses, rolling mills, bus depots, car showrooms, a steamroller works, a strawberry basket factory and a stately home were all commandeered for this purpose.
However, gross mismanagement and a recalcitrant workforce resulted in zero planes completed in the next two years. By June 1940, not a single plane had emerged
Again, I'm not discussing the war, but, lets see your blog post about it. I'm certain you've clearly made an ensemble piece about the spitfire, it's design, it's improvements, it's use in the war, who deserves credit for it, who failed at the castle Bromwich, why, and how that led to the problems the British had with supplying their army with Spitfires. No doubt your article also goes into details over the production process, the number of workers used, and the subcontractors who were building the Spitfire at places other than the Castle Bromwich
Send me a link to your posts... I'm dying to nit pick the shit out of them, out of context.
Are you smoking something? Send me some. I must find a way to be a pain in someone's but over my own misunderstanding of the way a story is crafted to render a narrative about something that happened 80 years ago, of very little consequence.
and still, I reiterate that the start of the war isn't relevant to the post I wrote, and when the war started? Isn't the issue. How they mismanaged building an airplane that was crucial to the war to defend England, is.
DeleteThe main facility was completed in 1939, to a cost of a whopping £4,000,000. The first Spitfires Mk. II left the production line in June 1940, not before some severe organisational problems and multiple delays had been sorted out. http://spitfiresite.com/2012/07/castle-bromwich-spitfire-and-lancaster-factory-photos.html
Delete