Supermarine Spitfire (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

The Spitfire was the premier British fighter of World War Two, occupying a place in the British mind similar to that occupied by the P-51 Mustang in the mind of the American public.   Indeed, since the Battle of Britainand other aerial combat actually took place where the public experienced them, the emotional attachment of the British to the Spitfire was probably greater than the American attachment to the Mustang.

Both the Spitfire and the Bf109 had a liquid-cooled V12 engine, in the case of the Spitfire the same Rolls-Royce Merlin that powered later Mustangs, and the Spitfire and Bf109 were very closely matched.   A technological arms race developed, which the Spitfire eventually won because of the sheer number of innovations which were developed, and it was even able to stay competitive against new German types like the Fw 190.   In the end there were 24 main variants of the Spitfire, and no fewer than six different wing types, with many sub-types.   The aircraft you see here is a Mk IX "clipped wing" variant of the basic elliptical wing, a modification which allowed the aircraft to roll faster, making it more maneuverable, especially at low altitudes.

Ultimately more Spitfires were produced than any other Allied fighter, a total of 20351, and it remained in service with the RAF and numerous other air forces well into the 1950s, though Russia and the United States retired most of their Spitfires at the end of the war.