4288 x 2848 px | 36,3 x 24,1 cm | 14,3 x 9,5 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
12. September 2015
Ort:
Goodwood, West Sussex, UK
Weitere Informationen:
Tangmere Aviation Museum's replica of the prototype Spitfire. On 5 March 1936, the prototype Supermarine Spitfire (K5054) took off on its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome (later Southampton Airport). At the controls was Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers, who is quoted as saying "Don't touch anything" on landing.This eight-minute flight came four months after the maiden flight of the contemporary Hurricane. K5054 was fitted with a new propeller, and Summers flew the aircraft on 10 March 1936; during this flight the undercarriage was retracted for the first time. After the fourth flight, a new engine was fitted, and Summers left the test-flying to his assistants, Jeffrey Quill and George Pickering. They soon discovered that the Spitfire was a very good aircraft, but not perfect. The rudder was over-sensitive and the top speed was just 330 mph (528 km/h), little faster than Sydney Camm's new Merlin-powered Hurricane. A new and better-shaped wooden propeller meant the Spitfire reached 348 mph (557 km/h) in level flight in mid-May, when Summers flew K5054 to RAF Martlesham Heath and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE). Here, Flight Lieutenant Humphrey Edwardes-Jones took over the prototype for the RAF. He had been given orders to fly the aircraft and then to make his report to the Air Ministry on landing. Edwardes-Jones's report was positive; his only request was that the Spitfire be equipped with an undercarriage position indicator. A week later, on 3 June 1936, the Air Ministry placed an order for 310 Spitfires, before any formal report had been issued by the A&AEE; interim reports were later issued on a piecemeal basis. On 4 September 1939 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, K5054 nosed over on landing and was considered damaged beyond repair. The accident that destroyed K5054 occurred the very day after Britain declared war on Germany.
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