It was the goal cherished by the victorious nations decades after

the end of hostilities and up until these days. Since the outbreak of the war, which some people naively expected to be short

and easy, it was clear that the victor will be the tougher, more

powerful and more creative one. It has been like that in every

war as far as we can remember just due to some mysterious

reasons people, including their top leaders, kept forgetting it

to only re-learn those facts when the new conflicts occured.

The Second World War was no different in this aspect; it was

however unique in its scale, persistence, damages and horrors

it caused. Everyone involved was determined, tough and persistent, all nations that took part in it reached to the bottom of

their resources despite different levels in casualties, suffering

of the soldiers and civilian population as well. As we know it

was getting worse going further to the East. The aviation industry reflects the given period of time and this was identical

on both sides of the front. You will find the Spitfire’s development mirror image in Messerschmitt Bf 109 development. The

same motivations, same goals, same problems and same results.

The greatest effort was made to produce as many aircraft as

possible, with the best performance possible and surpass the

enemy both in numbers and quality. There was the same effort

on both sides resulting in the deadly race. Every innovation on

one side triggered the innovation on the opponent‘s side, every

increase in performance almost immediately caused the rapid

reaction in the enemy’s camp. If we apply this principle to the

competition between Spitfire and Bf 109 it will be crystal clear.

Just the scale of troubles experienced during manufacturing

will be opposite on the timeline. With a fair amount of simplification we can say that while in Britain, or the Allied side, the

most serious problems were encountered at the beginning of

the war, culminating during 1940-1942, things got streamlined

towards the end of the conflict when the material supremacy

of the Allies was absolute. Of course the economical potential

of the United States played a crucial role but we cannot underestimate the importance of the British industry and its share

in the Allied manufacturing achievements. It was the opposite

on the Axis side. Out of all countries Germany was best prepared for war and in 1940 lived in euphoria that its industries

could supply the armed forces without problems until the victorious end. The breakpoint was reached however in the second

half of 1942 with the opposite trend than in Allied countries.

Even though the productivity of the German industry continued

growing it was consistently falling behind the Allied industries

and the supplies to the armies at the fronts were getting worse

proportionally to improving supplies to the Allied armies.

From this aspect some apparently illogical facts start to emerge

in a different light. As an example, the aforementioned fabric-covered ailerons on Spitfires Mk.I and Mk.V remained in production long after the new, more effective all-metal ailerons were

developed. They were approved for large-scale production in

December 1940 but almost the whole first half of 1941 Spitfires

were leaving the assembly lines with the fabric-covered ailerons and in some combat units a large number of aircraft still

featured these ailerons in late summer and fall 1941. During

this time, typically pragmatic Americans, without any lengthy

approval process, started to cover the ailerons on their Spitfires with the plywood. So this was happening almost a year after

the all-metal ailerons were to undisputedly replace the fabric-covered ones on manufacturing lines (one can hardly imagine

the situation like this nowadays). If we however factor in all

other facts of that period of time we will get another picture.

What was happening then? The winter 1940/41 German bombing

raids on Britain continued until the spring. The Spitfires production however was seriously affected by the raid on September

26, 1941 when the Supermarine plants in Wolston and Itchen

were heavily damaged. This resulted in the production reorganization, component manufacturing had to be spread among

the number of subcontractors and the aircraft final assembly

was being transferred to new locations. This of course caused

a number of problems not only in manufacturing but also in the

logistics which had to be dealt with promptly. Restarting the

Spitfire Mk.I manufacturing before the end of 1940 is from this

point of view a miracle enhanced by a fact that the aircraft manufactured were continuously improved. After New Year’s 1941

Spitfire Mk.V production was being launched. The goal was to

improve Spitfire performance to the level of the most powerful

RAF fighter before Bf 109F started to appear at the front and

soon even better and more dangerous FW 190A made their debut.

At the same time RAF losses were mounting after commencing

the permanent offensive in the spring of 1941 which created an

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enormous pressure on their replenishment. In such a situation

the quantity beats quality and the manufacturer under pressure

prioritizes fulfilling the orders at all cost. The requirement was

to deliver the aircraft with a more powerful engine and more

powerful weapons in sufficient numbers to meet combat needs.

The production met the goals however at the cost of the enormous problems. There was a shortage of everything, from labor

force to material to means of daily consumption but time was

in the shortest supply. In such a situation the fabric-covered

ailerons were a minor problem for the manufacturers. Their

production was going smoothly, it was well established, fabric

was applied by highly skilled female workers and as such it was

not a burden for the overall plant tasks. All-metal ailerons were

a different cup of tea. Their immediate implementation would

take away some capacity from the airframe production. While

the responsible department would train for the new technology it would result in the short supplies of the ailerons and

for some time no deliveries at all. The personnel enthusiasm

for technology change has never been great either. It’s been

a problem since the Industrial Revolution and it remains the

issue nowadays. People don’t like to change something that

works and can put up a persistent and sophisticated resistance

against the change. If you are a manager you are under the

customer’s pressure and if you don’t want to get a heart attack

you need to minimize the problems resolving the major ones

first addressing minor ones later. Big problem was new engines

and heavier weapons installation. That had to be solved, it was

a fundamental problem. The ailerons were a minor problem,

the manufacturing was going smoothly, the airplanes were

flying with them just fine so the problem was put on the back

burner. The air force got their share of trouble while introducing Mk.V into the operations such as engine overheating, guns

freezing etc. therefore the ailerons and their limits were not

really on the radar screen. Once these initial problems were

resolved in the summer of 1941 the damned ailerons came back

on the agenda and the air force demanded the thorough replacement of the fabric-covered ailerons for all-metal ones on all

Spitfires in service. So finally the manufacturers had to yield

and implement the change. Does it make sense to you? It does

to me, it sounds all too familiar. It is exactly the same with new

technologies introduction in our company, with one exception,

no one is dropping bombs on our heads and instead of RAF the

modellers are yelling at us when something does not work at

the first shot. And nothing works satisfactorily for the first time.

We can go case by case and it will be the same story. Ridiculing

it, talking about chaos and inability is not fair. Only us, people

from the future, from our perspective of the over-educated and

over-regulated smart heads living in comfort who have rather

vague and Hollywood-distorted visions about the conditions our

ancestors lived in and problems they dealt with. Once we get

in-depth familiar with these conditions and put the historic

processes and facts into the perspective, which we otherwise

tend to judge separately, we will change our opinion. We will

appreciate what our ancestors achieved and have to bow to

them very low. And regardless of the nation we belong to. It doesn’t matter if we speak about the British, Americans, Germans,

Japanese, Czechs or Russians. In principle the stories are the

same. Let’s respect and honour our ancestors and let’s make an

effort not to lose the well-being, achieved thanks to their work

and sacrifices, because of our ignorance and arrogance.

The following 47 figures will lead you through the Spitfire Mk.V

development depicting the details peculiar to each version.

The focus is on the changes made in comparison to the previous version. The common features are usually not described

and commented on, however exceptions can be found in some

figures.

Enjoy studying the following references.

INFO Eduard - January 2022