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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1965.PDF
WHEN the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane came into operation with the R.A.F. in the late 1930s they endowed that Service not only with an all- round superiority in fighting performance, but in armament also. Never in its annals, in fact, had a comparable advance in speed, climb, manoeuvrability and fire power been recorded, and such qualities as were deficient in one of the two new fighters were all the more marked in the other. Proof of this was the resounding victory in the Battle of Britain, wherein the two types were deployed in co-ordinated teams so that they might engage the Heinkel and Dornier bombers, and their escorting Messerschmitt fighters, to the best advantage. Now, after the passage of years (in which, unhappily, the same superiority in fighting equipment has not been maintained), the whole nation looks forward once more to the introduction of pre-eminent Vickers-Supermarine and Hawker single-seaters. Proto types of these two machines—the Swift, on the left, and the Hunter, above—are depicted here, and, epitomizing the glories soon to be revived in the R.A.F., a Spitfire—beautiful as ever—further graces the study of the Swift. It is more than a mere coincidence that both the Swift and the Hunter should accord with ancestral precept in having Rolls-Royce power, for each is fitted with a single Avon axial-flow turbojet; and it is good to know that, just as the Merlin of the Hurricane and Spitfire was developed through a formidable tally of mark numbers to deliver powers far in excess of its original 1,000 h.p., so will the currently quoted figure of 6,5001b thrust be very handsomely surpassed. Thus, the astonishing capabilities of our magnificent new fighters will be further enhanced. Both types were due to show their paces at Brussels last week-end. " •
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