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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0353.PDF
FLIGHT FEBRUARY 9, 1939 a •v • FIRES SQUADRONS Pushing them out A view through the hangar doors at Eastleigh. Nearest the camera are (left) Mr. A. H. Nelson, Supermarine's assistant works manager, and (right) F/O. J. K. Quill, test pilot. Reassuring Flow of Production Machines : Testing Our Fastest Eight-gun Fighters : Exceptional Flying Qualities (Illustrated with "Flight" photographs) SO far as is known, the Supermarine Spitfire is the fastest fighting aircraft on issue to any air force in the world, having a top speed of something over 350 m.p.h. Certainly it carries a heavier armament load than does any foreign counterpart (eight machine guns mounted in the wings), and its handling qualities, despite its superlative performance, are something to marvel at. The structure of the Spitfire has already been described in some detail in Flight; it may be recalled that the beautifully shaped wings, with their slightly inverted gull roots, are single-spar, and that the fuselage, like the wing, is of stressed-skin construction. The machines in the first, batches delivered are fitted with two-bladed fixed-pitch wooden airscrews for their Rolls-Royce Merlin II engines (1,030 max. h.p. at 16,250ft.), though variable-pitch De Havil- lands are being provided for subsequent machines, with the constant-speed Rotol as an eventual alternative. Production Spitfires are assembled in two hangars at Eastleigh, and are sent out on to the tarmac at a creditable rate, though peak produc tion has not yet been attained. The first flight of the prototype was made by Fit. Lt. M. Summers (in charge of testing at Vickers' Weybridge works), but the great majority of subsequent test work on experimental and pro duction Spitfires has been done by F/O. J. K. Quill, A.F.C., with P/O. J. H. T. Pickering, Distinguished : The first Spitfire with a De Havilland two-position v.p. airscrew ; they will shortly be standardised. A.F.C., lending a hand when he is not engaged in flying Stranraers and other marine types for the Supermarine works at Woolston. F/O. Quill took a short-service commission in the R.A.F. in 1921. After a spell at the F.T.S. at Grantham he joined No. 17 (Fighter) Squadron at Upavon, where he flew Bulldogs. Two years were spent with the " Met." Flight at Duxford on Siskins. Having extended his short-service commission for three years he was posted to Martlesham, but in the meantime he was offered the job of testing Vickers machines at Wey-
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