The most famous military aircraft of all time and one of the
most beautiful ever built, the Spitfire is perhaps chiefly
remembered as the symbol of the Battle of Britain. The
Spitfire was developed by Supermarine’s brilliant chief
designer, R.J. Mitchell, and was the only British type in
continuous construction throughout World War II. The RAF’s
first Spitfires were delivered to No 19 Squadron at Duxford
in 1938 and by July 1940, on the eve of the Battle of
Britain, nineteen RAF squadrons were equipped with the new
fighter. During WWII, thanks to constant improvements and
modifications, the Spitfire was never outclassed as a
short-ranged piston-engined interceptor apart from a brief
period in 1941-1942, when it first encountered the
Focke-Wulf FW-190. When production finally ceased in 1949,
more than 22,000 Spitfires and Seafires (the naval version
of the Spitfire) had been built in some forty different
variants.
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