Download or read book Ultimate Spitfires written by Peter Caygill and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2007-03-28 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Spitfire is probably Britain's best loved and admired airplane. It is also revered around the world. This book looks at the later marques that were modified for various special tasks and differed to a large degree from Supermarine's first early versions that saw action in the early days of World War II. New and more powerful Rolls-Royce engines replaced the well-tried Merlin, but increased the aircrafts performance in terms of speed and operational altitude. Subtle changes to wing design also increased the maneuverability and capability of these spectacular models that survived in the operational role until superseded by the introduction of jet-powered flight.The content explains the design details, development and flight testing of twelve models and also contains their operational roles and history. Lengthy appendices will include Griffon-powered Spitfire aces, V1 rocket destruction aces, Griffon-powered Spitfire losses and where the survivors can be found."

Download or read book Malloch s Spitfire written by Nick Meikle and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2014-04-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the pursuit of a dream. Spitfire PK350 is the only late-mark Spitfire, an F Mk 22, to have ever been restored to full flying status. She had no restrictions on her airframe and with four fully serviceable 20mm cannons, she was as good as the day she came off the production line in July 1945 near Birmingham, England. She first flew as a restored aircraft on 29 March 1980 at the hands of one John McVicar “Jack” Malloch. By then a legend in his adopted country, Rhodesia, Malloch had in 1977 been entrusted by the hierarchy of the Rhodesian Air Force to restore SR64, as she was then known. In two and half years, Jack Malloch and his trusted engineers, with critical help from the Rhodesian and South African air forces, completely restored SR64 to flying condition. The fact that she was fitted with a propeller made by a German company added a sweet irony to a project that had to contend with sanctions imposed by Britain, the original country of manufacture, and highlighted the enterprising spirit of the team. This was possible because Malloch, with the backing of the Rhodesian government, had built up a successful charter airfreight company that assumed different guises, depending on where it was operating, to bypass sanctions. Malloch's network thus facilitated his quest to restore and once again fly a Spitfire such as he had flown in the RAF during the Second World War. Some fascinating insights are revealed in this account. From the test pilot who first flew her as PK350 on 25 July 1945, the reader is taken on a journey through the aircraft's complete life, with the project's lead engineer and most of the surviving pilots who flew her gracing the story with their memories. For two years PK350 delighted those fortunate enough to see her fly, mostly around Salisbury (Harare) airport. Then, on what was planned to be its last flight, Malloch's Spitfire never returned to base.

Download or read book Spitfire written by Leo McKinstry and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2010-10-14 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1940, the German Army had brought the rest of Europe to its knees. 'Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world will move forward into broad, sunlit uplands,' said Churchill. The future of Europe depended on Britain. A self-confident Herman Goring thought that it would be only a matter of weeks before his planes had forced Britain to surrender. The courage, resourcefulness and brilliant organisation of the RAF were to prove him wrong. By late September 1940, the RAF had proved invincible, thanks to the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire. It exceeded anything that any other air force possessed. RJ Mitchell, a shy and almost painfully modest engineer, was the genius behind the Spitfire. On the 5th March 1936, following its successful maiden flight, a legend was born. Prize-winning historian Leo McKinstry's vivid history of the Spitfire brings together a rich cast of characters and first hand testimonies. It is a tale full of drama and heroism, of glory and tragedy, with the main protagonist the remarkable plane that played a crucial role in saving Britain.

Download or read book Lightnings to Spitfires written by Clive Rowley and published by Air World. This book was released on 2022-01-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former fighter pilot chronicles his career flying for the Royal Air Force for over four decades in this action-packed memoir. For forty-four years, Clive Rowley flew with the Royal Air Force, and for thirty-one of those years he specialized as an air defense fighter pilot. Such was his love of fast fighter aircraft that, in order to stay flying, he transferred to Specialist Aircrew terms of service, relinquishing any chance of further promotion above his rank of squadron leader. During those years Clive flew Lightnings, Hawks, and Tornado F.3s but, perhaps more intriguingly, for eleven years he flew Hurricanes and Spitfires with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), the RAF’s, if not the world’s most famous “warbird” display team, which he ultimately led and commanded. Many readers will have watched him, perhaps unknowingly, as he flew these iconic aircraft, often alongside the Lancaster, at air shows and large-scale commemorations around the UK and Europe. During the Cold War, Clive flew the BAC Lightning from Gütersloh in Germany and in the UK, becoming an expert in the art of air combat in the process. Then for sixteen years he flew the Tornado F.3 as the RAF moved into expeditionary operations. Packed with humorous and often hair-raising anecdotes, but also revealing the shock and sorrow he felt at the deaths of friends and colleagues, this book is a highly detailed account of life as a fighter pilot in the RAF in the last three decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Clive is open about the fears he sometimes felt in this dangerous world and how he allayed them to continue flying for more than four decades. This book is illustrated with wonderful photographs from his time on the front line as well as with the BBMF, many of which have never been published before. If you have ever wondered what it is like to fly supersonic jet fighters, like the Lightning and the Tornado F.3, or iconic “warbirds,” such as the Hurricane and Spitfire, Clive Rowley brings you into those cockpits and shares his experiences.

Download or read book Strong to Serve written by Joseph Mack and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following training in Australia, Canada and the UK, Fred Riley flew Spitfires with No 130 (Punjab) Squadron RAF from October 1943 until December 1944. Flying the Spitfire Mk.V, he escorted bombers, flew fighter sweeps, and undertook hazardous patrols on D-Day. With a new Spitfire Mk.XIV, Fred intercepted V-1 flying bombs aimed at London. Later, from the Netherlands and Belgium, he conducted anti jet and low-level sorties over those countries and into Germany. During one such flight, Fred and his colleagues were surprised by a superior force of Luftwaffe fighters. Fred’s logbook records historically significant names, places and events. He served with notable aces, escorted General Eisenhower, and protected transport aircraft during Operation Market Garden. The logbook ends on 22 December 1944 – Fred was shot down and severely injured while supporting beleaguered American forces. However, it is Fred’s memories of instructors, fellow trainees, and the pilots he flew with that are most enlightening. This account details Fred’s journey to becoming a fighter pilot and his remarkable recollections of combat over the UK and Europe. It also highlights the courage, achievements and sacrifices of the men of 130 Squadron – a multi-national group of pilots who lived up to their motto: ‘Strong to Serve’.

Download or read book Dogfight written by David Owen and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-06-20 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Innumerable books have been published on the two most famous fighter aircraft of all time, the Supermarine Spitfire and the Messerschmitt Bf109. But books setting out to tell the story of both aircraft are very much rarer - probably fewer than the fingers of one hand. Yet their joint story is one which bears retelling since both were essential to the air campaigns of World War Two.Incredibly, the men who designed them lacked any experience of designing a modern fighter. R J Mitchell had begun his career working on industrial steam locomotives, Willy Messerschmitt had cut his aeronautical teeth on light and fragile gliders and sporting planes. Yet both men not only managed to devise aircraft which could hold their own in a world where other designs went from state-of-the-art to obsolete in a staggeringly short time, but their fighters remained competitive over six years of front-line combat. Despite the different ways their creators approached their daunting tasks and the obstacles each faced in acceptance by the services for which they were designed, they proved to be so closely matched that neither side gained a decisive advantage in a titanic struggle. Had either of them not matched up to its opponent so well, then the air war would have been a one-sided catastrophe ending in a quick defeat for the Allies or the Axis powers, and the course of twentieth century history would have been changed beyond recognition.

Download or read book Secret Spitfires written by Howman and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: September 1940: In the midst of the Second World War, The Luftwaffe unleashed a series of devastating raids on Southampton, all but destroying its Spitfire factories. But production didn't stop. Instead, manufacturing of this iconic fighter moved underground, to secret locations staffed by women, children and non-combatant men. With little engineering experience between them, they built a fleet of one of the greatest war planes that has ever existed. This is their story.

Download or read book A Spitfire Girl written by Mary Ellis and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII biography recounts the heroic contributions of a female pilot who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellington Bombers for the RAF. A farmer’s daughter from Oxfordshire, Mary Ellis fell in love with flying at the age of eleven, when she rode in a biplane at a flying circus. Already a licensed pilot by the time the Second World War broke out, Mary joined the Air Transit Auxiliary in 1941. As a ferry pilot, she transported aircraft for the Royal Air Force, including more than four hundred Spitfires and seventy-six different kinds of aircraft. After the war, Mary accepted a secondment to the RAF as one of the first pilots to fly the new Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first fighter jet. By 1950, she became Europe's first female air commandant. In this authorized biography, Mary and biographer Melody Foreman vividly recount her action-packed career spanning almost a century of aviation. Mary says: I am passionate for anything fast and furious. I always have been since the age of three and I always knew I would fly. The day I stepped into a Spitfire was a complete joy and it was the most natural thing in the world for me.

Download or read book Triumph Cars written by Ross Alkureishi and published by Motorbooks International. This book was released on 2023-06-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Triumph Cars is a comprehensive, gorgeously illustrated history of the Triumph sports cars sought by today’s collectors and admired by automotive enthusiasts.

Download or read book A Tale of Ten Spitfires written by Andrew Critchell and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fw190s supremacy over the Spitfire V is a classic legend from the Second World War, heralding one of the darkest times for Fighter Command and the RAF. _A Tale of Ten Spitfires_ brings this legend to life by examining the individual combat histories of ten Spitfire VCs, the first of which is the Shuttleworth Collections well known Spitfire AR501, followed by the next nine on the production line, AR502 to AR510.This link to a living airframe, whose first flight after a lengthy restoration is imminent, provides an ideal hook for the enthusiast and also members of the wider public with a more general interest in this classic British icon.Through first hand accounts, combat reports, unit diaries and more, the book provides a unique looking glass into the period, told via the experiences of the Spitfire pilots themselves, tracing their fates and those of the ten machines that they flew.

Download or read book The Buried Spitfires of Burma written by Andy Brockman and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rumours of buried Spitfires from the Second World War have spread around the world for seventy-five years. In April 2012, the press reported that the UK had negotiated an agreement with Myanmar for the recovery of twenty crated Spitfires, reportedly buried after WW2. Astonishingly the agreement came about through the single-minded determination of a farmer, David Cundall. Armed with a high-tech survey showing mysterious shapes under the surface of Yangon International Airport, David's expedition is equipped with JCB excavators. But instead of Spitfires, the team unearths a tale of fake history. The Buried Spitfires of Burma explores what happened next as David Cundall's dream unravelled over the course of a historical 'whodunnit' that spans seven decades and three continents. It follows one of the most bizarre stories since the sensational Hitler Diaries hoax.

Download or read book Spitfire Down written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profoundly moved by the stories of wartime casualties as a child, Dilip Sarkar has since spent a lifetime reconstructing the lives of many of the fallen and is passionate about recording and sharing this very personal hidden history. In Spitfire Down he explores the stories of thirteen pilots who failed to return, all killed, either in action or flying accidents, while a fourteenth, Flying Officer Buck Casson, was brought down by a German ace over France and captured. There is, for example, the virtually unknown story of ‘The Baby of the RAF’, Sergeant Geoffrey Painting. Posted to fly Spitfires with 118 Squadron at RAF Ibsley in Hampshire, Painting was hit by flak during an attack on enemy shipping off Cherbourg on 30 September 1941. Still listed as missing, at just 17, he is believed to have been the youngest RAF pilot killed during the Second World War. The author has reconstructed Painting’s short life with help from his family, and forensically deconstructed that last flight with the help of the now late Wing Commander Peter Howard-Williams DFC, who was flying with the teenage pilot that day. The author also explores the heart-rending story of an American trainee fighter pilot, Pilot Officer ‘Jim Bob’ Lee, whose Spitfire collided with a Wellington bomber over Gloucestershire – resulting in the loss of all airmen involved. Two Canadian pilots perished on Pen-y-Fan, the highest peak in South Wales. The multi-national effort that defeated Hitler is further emphasised, in fact, through the stories of both Wing Commander Piotr Laguna and Flying Officer Franek Surma. But perhaps most tragic of all is how lightning struck Joan Welch twice: her first fiancée, Flight Lieutenant Lester Sanders DFC, was killed test-flying Spitfires in 1942, and her second, Pilot Officer Ian Smith, was killed flying in Palestine in 1945. Using correspondence, diaries and other personal papers of the pilots concerned, the author has reconstructed their all-too brief lives and provided a lasting and profusely illustrated record of these sacrifices.

Download or read book From Nighthawk to Spitfire written by John Shelton and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-07-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R. J. Mitchell was virtually self-taught; surprisingly, almost all his other aircraft 24 aircraft were slow-flying seaplanes. How a lad from the land-locked Midlands, apprenticed to a locomotive works, came to be responsible for the Spitfire is a great tale in itself. This detailed book tells us how Mitchell learned his trade – from 1916, contributing to the production of the cumbersome Nighthawk, designed to combat the German Zepplin threat, and gradually coming to produce record-breaking racing floatplanes which in 1931 won outright the prestigious international Schneider Trophy. Mitchell was thus well placed to design a high speed aircraft when war began to threaten, but Dr Shelton reveals the production of the famous fighter was by no means a certainty and how, indeed, its vital contribution to winning the Battle of Britain was ‘a very close run thing’.

Download or read book Star Spangled Spitfires written by Tony Holmes and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-05-31 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the medium of period photography, Star-Spangled Spitfires chronicles the combat operations of the USAAF units equipped with the iconic Supermarine fighter whilst employed in both the European and Mediterranean theaters of war, from the summer of 1942 right up to the end of the conflict.Only a handful of British combat aircraft wore the stars and bars of the USAAF during the Second World War, with the Beaufighter, Mosquito and Spitfire being the key types to see action with American crews in American squadrons. The Spitfire was, by some margin, the most widely used of the three, and the Yanks that flew it in combat rated the fighter very highly. Employed primarily by the six squadrons of the 31st and 52nd Fighter Groups, initially from airfields in the UK and then in North Africa and Italy, the Spitfire was used both as a fighter and fighter-bomber until it was replaced by the P-51 Mustang from the spring of 1944.The final star-spangled Spitfires in the frontline were the Eighth Air Forces high-flying and unarmed PR XI photo-reconnaissance aircraft, flown by to the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group alongside F-5 Lightnings from November 1943. Ranging as far into Germany as Berlin, the PR Blue Spitfires provided critical target imagery both pre- and post-strike for the Mighty Eighths heavy bombardment groups through to April 1945.All feature here across a series of black and white and color images that all capture some unique aspect of the star-spangled Spitfire's illustrious service career.

Download or read book Spitfire written by Andy Saunders and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2012-07-17 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the recovery of a World War II plane shot down in France—and the effort to restore this historic aircraft. Spitfire is the fascinating story of the recovery of a Battle of France Spitfire Mk 1 from the sands of Calais during the early 1980s—and its subsequent return to the United Kingdom for rebuild and restoration to flying condition. The full history of the airframe from the factory to loss, the airplane’s operational history with 92 Squadron, and the story of the pilots who flew it during its career are also told, as is the unfolding saga of its restoration and return to air—detailing its progress through the workshops right up to the first flight in 2011.

Download or read book Griffon Spitfire Aces written by Andrew Thomas and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modified for low-level operations to counter Luftwaffe attacks on the south coast, the Griffon-powered Spitfire XIV became the best low-level fighter of World War II. Squadrons moved to south-eastern England to counter the V1 flying bomb offensive, where daring pilots pioneered the technique of tipping the V1 over with the aircraft's wingtip to disorientate the bomb. Andrew Thomas also investigates the role played by the modified Spitfire squadrons after the V1 offensive, both in the attack on Germany and after the war in Malaya and Palestine. First-hand stories, photographs and colour profiles complete this account of the aces who flew the most powerful Spitfire variant ever built.

Download or read book The Spitfire written by Philip Kaplan and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An amazing tribute to the people who designed, built and flew it—a comprehensive history of one of the most beautiful aircraft ever manufactured.”—Books Monthly The magnificent Vickers Supermarine Spitfire, together with its able partner the Hawker Hurricane, saved Britain from Nazi invasion in the summer of 1940 and irrevocably changed the course of the Second World War. This book from Philip Kaplan celebrates one of history’s most important weapons in a glorious new light. A British national icon, the Spitfire is the best-known symbol of the war years for generations of Britons. From the deep, haunting growl of its Rolls-Royce engine, to the elegant style of its elliptical wing, it is perhaps the most famous and revered combat airplane ever built. Kaplan investigates just what it is that fuels the Spitfire’s compelling mystique. During wartime, it held an unrivaled reputation amongst Allied and Axis airmen. Today, it continues to hold aviation enthusiasts in thrall. Kaplan highlights the immeasurable contributions of Spitfire designers Reginald J. Mitchell and Joseph Smith, test pilots Jeffrey Quill, Mutt Summers and Alex Henshaw, and ace Spitfire pilots including Al Deere, Sailor Malan and Pierre Clostermann. All added to the legend of this lovely, but deadly, little fighter. “Can be considered a ‘Potted History’ of the Spitfire and its military and civilian service, with particular emphasis being placed on the restoration of AR213. On that basis it will probably appeal to Spitfire aficionados in particular and to aviation and war-bird enthusiasts in general.”—NZ Crown Mines