HISTORY

fire Mk.I production can be cleanly divided into the blocks with clearly

defined atributes such as equipment, weaponry and other parameters.

Truth be told, it is very easy to distinguish Spitfire Mk.I from the beginning

of its production, featuring two blade propeller and flat canopy, from

Spitfire in its final form with three bladed propeller and bubble canopy

but that is about it. Once the inovations and changes started to roll out

they were applied gradually and it was not uncommon as the result of an

improvisation.

Thus Spitfires featuring various changes served, at the same time, with

Spitfires that were still waiting for their application. Typical example is

the cockpit and other parts armor protection. In certain period, typically the spring 1940, it is very difficult to determine what kind of armor

protection had been installed on Spitfires and to which extent on any

particular airframe. Even if we know the date of the introduction of

a particular change, it will not help because this change was demonstrably

featured earlier than it was supposed to officially. S/Ldr. Cozens Spitfire

bubble canopy visible in the photographs from October 1938 serves as

an example, well before the official introduction of te bubble canopy

into production in January 1939. We have the similar situation with the

armor behind pilot’s head, officially introduced in November 1940, but

documented to be already featured on the aircraft photograhed in May

or June 1940. Immediately after presenting our Spitfire Mk.I model on

Czech Modeller‘s Forum the motor-driven hydraulic pump of the undercarriage retracting system became an instant hit. In further Spitfire versions

this pump replaced the original, hand-operated pump installed in Spitfire

Mk.I. The published sources vaguely state that the hand pump was later

replaced by the motor-driven one spreading the information at the same

time, that it took place after the manufacture of the 175th Spitfire Mk.I.

This is an error, the aircraft of much later production blocks still featured

the hand pump and it is highly probable that the undercarriage retracting

system with motor-driven pump has never been introduced into Spitfire

Mk.I production line. Spitfire Mk.I pilots therefore retracted their landing

gear by 27 strokes of the large lever mounted on the right side of the

cockpit which certainly had an negative impact on take off and landing

procedures and more often than not caused bruises of the back of the

pilot‘s hand, known as „Spitfire Knuckle“. On the contrary, Spitfires Mk.II

featured the motor-driven pump as a standard, supposedly right off the

production start.

The most resistant and favourite errors are obviously the following:

- Two parallel wing strengthening strakes on the wing skin above wheel

well. These wing strengthening strakes have never been featured on the

combat Spitfire Mk.I, not even Mk.II and Mk.V. They were applied on the

aircraft much later, the earliest in 1942, exclusively as an reinforcement

of the skin over the wheel well as it was exposed to an enourmous stress

on war-weary aircraft.

- Oil cooler with circular intersection under the left wing. Spitfires Mk.I

have never featured these cooler, only those with U-shape intersection.

S/Ldr Robert Stanford Tuck in cabin of No. 257 Squadron Hurricane.

- Electrical socket on the port side of the wing root, behind the canopy. It

was missing on Mk.I. It needs to be filled with putty on our model since the

basic fuselage design is common for Mk.I, Mk.II and Mk.V versions.

- Gunsight with rectangular shade. It was only introduced into production

in 1941.

- Little bulge covering a pyrotechnical starter (Coffman starter) on the

port side of the aircraft nose behind propeller. This starter was only introduced on Merlin III powering Spitfires Mk.II. Sometimes it is stated that

also Merlin III powered Spitfires Mk.I were equipped with this starter. It

is not true.

- The inner armor glass. It has never been featured on Mk.I, it was only

introduced in 1942 on Spitfire Mk.V production line.

- And in addition already mentioned motor-driven pump and all metal

ailerons. Neither can be documented on any combat Spitfire Mk.I.

And then we have one more historical error. Frequently repeated, maybe not a complete error but a suspicion, uncertainty circulated around

the world with the intention to dissolve and cover up the old thruths, as

happening nowadays all the time. From time to time someone states that

RAF did not win BoB, that Luftwaffe did not loose, that if it had wanted

it would have finished it, but did not want to. That LW only lost interest in

carrying on with Battle of Britain. Let‘s make it clear: the loss of interest to

win the battle means defeat. It has been like it since the beginning of days

and will be forever. Whoever looses interest, looses the faith as well and

ultimately looses the battle. That is it, no rocket science. RAF won the Battle

of Britain. Luftwaffe suffered its first defeat. It was the first out of many

awaiting it in the coming five years and Spitfires played their role in them

more often than not. And that is all about Spitfire today. We will continue

with Spitfire Mk.II in the end of 2020.

Vladimír Šulc

Foto courtesy of Simon Erland and CTK

- Crow bar on the cockpit door. It was only introduced in 1941 and it

has never been painted red on wartime aircraft. Definitely not on Spitfires

Mk.I.

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INFO Eduard - August 2020