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Flying in a British bomber during World War Two was one of the most dangerous jobs imaginable. Some
55,000 aircrew died in raids over Europe between 1939 and 1945, the highest loss rate of any major branch of the British armed
forces. Yet there is no official campaign medal commemorating the sacrifices of these men. Their contribution to the war effort
has been partly overshadowed by the controversy over the saturation bombing of German cities in 1944 and '45, in which
tens of thousands of German civilians were killed. During
the war, this was not a debate that concerned most members of Bomber Command. They were preoccupied with obeying their orders,
and with surviving. Early in the war bomber pilots were taught terrible lessons about their vulnerability. Missions over Europe
were flown by day, and German fighters found the lumbering British aircraft easy targets.In late 1939, 21 out of 36 bombers
on one sortie failed to return. Many of the planes were flying so low that when they were hit there was no time to bale out.
Daylight raids were abandoned. From then on, British bombers would fly mainly at night.Navigation in the dark was intensely
difficult, particularly if there was cloud cover over the ground. At first, crews had to rely on dead reckoning - estimating
position by speed, flying time and compass. Unpredictable winds could disrupt the finest calculations. The Early Aviation Industry in France
France was undoubtedly
the leader in the earliest days of aviation. It had the first designers and was the first to form independent companies dedicated
to building aircraft. The earliest company of this type was probably Gabriel Voisin and Ernest Archdeacon's Syndicat d'Aviation,
which they formed in 1905. The company produced two biplane gliders, one for Archdeacon and one for Louis Blériot,
mounted on floats and resembling a box kite in appearance.
Blériot joined Voisin and formed the Blériot-Voisin
Company later in 1905. The company built a floatplane, a glider, and a powered machine. But their craft couldn't fly,
and the two parted in 1906, with Voisin buying Blériot's shares. In November 1906, Gabriel Voisin and his brother
Charles formed Voisin Fréres, the first commercial aircraft company. The Voisin company built gliders and airplanes
and produced about 20 airplanes before World War I began in 1914. At about the same time, Blériot began his own company
and built a series of popular aircraft, including his famous Blériot XI, which he used in his record-setting crossing
of the English Channel in 1909, and the Bleriot XII, which shone at the Reims International Air Meet.
History of the airplane
The A-26 was
the follow-on design to the A-20 and entered combat in late 1944. The type had early developmental difficulties, and it took
28 months to go from first flight to combat operations. After being redesignated as B-26 in 1948, it was the only attack airplane
available when war broke out in Korea. Crews flew their first mission against North Korea on June 29, 1950, when they bombed
an airfield at Pyongyang. Air Force B- 26s were credited with the destruction of 38,500 vehicles, 3,700 railway cars, 406
locomotives, and seven enemy aircraft on the ground in Korea. On September 14, 1951, while flying a night intruder mission,
Capt. John S. Walmsley, Jr., attacked a North Korean supply train, but after his guns jammed he used his search light to light
the way for his wingmen to finish destroying the train. Captain Walmsley was shot down, died, and was posthumously awarded
the Medal of Honor. On July 27, 1953, 24 minutes before the cease-fire was signed, a B-26 crew from the 3d Bomb Wing dropped
the last bombs of the Korean War. Some holdover RB-26s were part of the initial cadre of aircraft sent to Vietnam as part
of Operation Farm Gate. In the early 1960s, On-Mark Engineering converted approximately 40 aircraft into the B-26K Counter
Invader for counterinsurgency missions in Vietnam
"For all
practical purposes the war plane came into being at the end of 1914, with the adoption of the machine gun. In the early stages
of the war reconnaissance planes, used for observation of enemy troop movements and of artillery fire, used to come into close
confrontation with each other.
Air craft of world war one
An amazing array
of aircraft were used during the course of the Vietnam conflict. Below you'll find a partial listing of American aircraft
(as well as allies) and enemy aircraft. Pictures of the air planes and helicopters may be viewed by clicking the link in their
descriptions.
There was an aircraft that used to
fly across our skies that was affectionately called the Phantom II or the Navy F-4 Fighter. It was a very powerful aircraft
that seemed to prove the theory that you could make a rock fly if you put big enough engines on it. It was a MIG Killer
in Vietnam and used extensively in every theater of the world. It had two huge engines that delivered 25,000 lbs of thrust
and when the afterburners were lit up, it would rock the ground for miles away. The early versions like the F-4C could be
seen for miles as they had a huge smoke trail, this was later modified in the F-4D and F-4E versions. There were also versions
used for air recon missions that had photo cameras on the bottom. The F-4G was called the Wild Weasel and had the capability
of taking out enemy air defenses, which proved to be very valuable during the attacks against the North Vietnamese air defense
system. The Phantom had two seats and that pilot was in the front seat, and directly behind him was the weapons officer
otherwise called the WISO. These aircraft have been featured in many movies such Top Gun or Hamburger Hill to mention just
a few. The aircraft is now retired from active service, last flown by the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves, and
now can usually be seen as static aircraft all over the US. The testament to the glory days of a true fighter, and though
it was hated by maintenance personnel it carries a special place in the hearts of those of us who worked on it.
List of Aircraft Used During the Vietnam War
The B-17 was
primarily employed in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military
targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF
Bomber Command's night time area bombing in Operation Point blank, to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories
and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated, to a lesser extent,
in the War in the Pacific, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping.
A History of RAF Organisations
The Soviet Air Force began operating the Tupolev TU-95
Bear in the mid 1950's. The Russian Air Force is still operating the venerable Bear and it's projected to continue
service until the middle of the current century. The Bear was originally developed as a long range, high altitude, bomber.
It fulfilled a role similar to the B-52 Stratofortress of the United States Air Force. Over the years its been modified to
perform a variety of missions to include maritime patrol, cruise missile launch platform, Airborne Early Warning as well as
a civilian airliner variant.
The TU-95 was a main stay of the cold war. It performed a number of missions for the
Russian Military and became a common sight to U.S. and NATO air crews that were sent to intercept it. The maritime variant
performed a number of useful missions for the Soviet Naval Forces including surveillance, tracking, and targeting for various
soviet military assets. TU -95s routinely departed from the Kola Peninsula, flew across the Atlantic, down the eastern seaboard
of the United States, and landed in Cuba
The Tu-95 is the fastest propeller driven aircraft, and some say one of
the loudest aircraft in the world. It's powered by four Kuznetsov turbo prop engines rated at 10,000 SHP (shaft horsepower)
each. Each engine drives contra-rotating propellers that have an 18ft diameter. The engines are mounted on wings that are
swept back 35 degrees. The fuselage is cylindrical, has a rounded nose and tapers towards the rear. The TU-95 has a large
bomb bay and is able to carry 20 tons of ordinance. The Bear also has two 23mm tail guns, which provide defense against fighters
attacking from the aircraft's rear
Crew requirements vary depending on the mission. A generic crew consists
of two pilots, one tail gunner, and up to four sensor operators. The Bear has a maximum takeoff weight of 414,500 pounds,
a maximum speed of 575 mph, a range on 9,400 miles, and a service ceiling of 39,000 ft.
The TU-95 continues to
test the readiness of US and NATO air crews by probing national boundaries. A role that began half a century ago and will
continue for many years to come. The TU-95 has been a symbol of Soviet Aviation since the 1950's. Numerous upgrades have
kept it a vital piece of Russian military strategy today and well into the next century
The Aviation History On-line Museum
World's Armed Forces Forum
The Golden Age of Aviation
A history of RAF Aircrew
American Aircraft of World War II
The Spitfire
and Bf 109E were well-matched in speed and agility, and both were somewhat faster than the Hurricane. The slightly larger
Hurricane was regarded as less "twitchy" and provided a more stable gun platform, as Luftwaffe bombers would later
find out to their cost. The RAF's preferred tactic was if possible to deploy the Hurricane's concentrated fire power
against formations of less-agile bombers, and to pit the Spitfires against the fighter escorts waiting to pounce from higher
altitude. The Spitfires one-piece sliding moulded canopy gave the best visibility, the pilot having a better chance of spotting
an enemy over the Bf 109E and its heavy framed hinged hood. The Emil's main armament was two MG-17 (Maschinengewehr 17)
7.92 x 57 mm machine guns on the engine decking and two Oerlikon / Mauser MG FF 20 x 72RB mm auto-cannons in the wings. Although
the explosive cannon shells had more destructive power, the FF's low muzzle velocity and limited ammunition carried meant
the cannon was not markedly superior to the Hurricane and Spitfire's eight proven Browning .303 (7.7 x 56R mm) machine
guns. Whilst the British
were not the first to make use of heavier-than-air military aircraft, the RAF is the world's oldest air force of any significant
size to become independent of army or navy control. It was founded on 1 April 1918, during the First World War, by the amalgamation
of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. After the war, the service was cut drastically and its inter-war
years were relatively quiet, with the RAF taking responsibility for the control of Iraq and executing a number of minor actions
in other parts of the British Empire.
The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World
War. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained
and formed "Article XV squadrons" for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from these countries,
and exiles from occupied Europe also served with RAF squadrons.
The most famous fighter aircraft used in the Battle of Britain were the British Supermarine Spitfire,
Hawker Hurricane and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E (Emil). Although nowadays the glamorous Spitfire is often thought of
as the main British fighter, in fact the Hurricanes were at first more numerous (by a factor of about 5:3) and (especially
in the early part of the battle), were responsible for most of the German losses.
There are approximately
44 Spitfires and a few Seafires airworthy worldwide, although many air museums have static examples. For example, Chicago's
Museum of Science and Industry has paired a static Spitfire with a static Ju 87 R-2/Trop. Stuka dive bomber. The RAF Battle
of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire maintains and operates five Spitfires (of various marks) for flying
display and ceremonial purposes. A Spitfire XIVe, MV293 owned by The Fighter Collection at Duxford is marked as MV268, JE-J,
flown by Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson OC 127 Wing, Germany May 1945. There are regularly more than a dozen Spitfires on
site at Duxford. Whilst some of these are under restoration in a private hangar many flying and static examples can be seen
in hangars one to 5. The Temora Aviation Museum in Temora, New South Wales, Australia, has two airworthy Spitfires: a Mk VIII
and a Mk XVI, which are flown regularly during the museum's flying weekends. A Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk XVIE is on display
in the Polish Aviation Museum. The Hellenic Air Force Museum own and displays a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc. Kennet Aviation,
a British company specializing in ex-military aircraft has a Seafire XVII and a number of Seafire projects at its home airfield
at North Weald Airfield.
1917 Curtiss JN-4D
The Boeing B-17
Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing
against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both the other competitors and
more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract due to the prototype's crash, the Air
Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 B-17s. The B-17 Flying Fortress went on to enter full-scale
production and was considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft, eventually evolving through numerous design advancements,
from B-17A to G. |
The Black Spitfire
is a black-painted Spitfire which belonged to Israeli pilot and former president Ezer Weizman. It is on exhibit in the Israeli
Air Force Museum in Hatserim and is used for ceremonial flying displays.
Kermit Weeks, keeps a restored Mk XVI at his
Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida.
The "Asas de Um Sonho" Museum, located in São Carlos, Brazil,
owns the only airworthy Spitfire in South America, a Mk IXc donated to the museum by Rolls Royce and painted in the colors
and markings of RAF ace Johnnie Johnson.
One of the newest Spitfires to fly in Canadian skies is Michael Potter's
Supermarine Mk XVI Spitfire SL721/N721WK/C-GVZB, refinished in the markings of No. 421 Squadron RCAF and is now registered
in Gatineau, Quebec as part of the Vintage Wings of Canada Collection.
A Seafire 47, the final aircraft in the long
and distinguished line of aircraft, is airworthy with Jim Smith in the U.S. after being restored by Ezell Aviation.
The
Shuttleworth Collection maintains and displays an airworthy Mk Vc, AR501.
One Spitfire Mk IX is on display at the "Vigna
di Valle Museum" (Italian Air Force Museum) Bracciano, Rome, Italy.
Nearly 8,000
members strong, the Vintage Aircraft Association brings together people from around the world who share an interest in the
aircraft of yesterday. Since it was established in 1971, the association has been working to keep aviation history alive.
Members are active restorers and enthusiasts working to keep vintage aircraft in the air and flying for the pleasure and education
of themselves and the public at large.
Vintage Aircraft Association
Man's passion
to fly must have originated in prehistoric times. The beauty and freedom of soaring birds has always drawn our admiration
and envy. The freedom to move in any direction over all obstacles is a capability that all of us would enjoy. Early attempts
to defy gravity involved the invention of ingenuous machines, such as ornithopters
History of Flight
Welcome on the
British Aircraft of World War II site, providing data and photographs of hundreds of different types of British air planes.
British Aircraft of World War II is a reference to all known types of aeroplane of British origin that saw military service
during the Second World War.
Next to that, British Aircraft of World War II contains data and photos of Commonwealth
aircraft, being aircraft types that originated in the countries of the British Commonwealth, including types that were designed
in the USA but were subject to extensive development by licensees in the British Commonwealth.
British Aircraft
of World War II contains a range form the famous fighters and bombers of frontline units, such as the Spitfire, Hurricane,
Mosquito and Lancaster, to trainers, civilian impressed aircraft and experimental aeroplanes that were tried and tested between
1939 and 1945.
British Aircraft of World War II
Foo Fighters was the name used for numerous unexplained
phenomena in WW II, as well as being used in a derogatory sense. Some pilots over Europe called them "Kraut balls".
In the Pacific Theater, it was how some pilots referred to the Japanese fliers who were infamous for their erratic flying.
Foo fighters is the name given by the scientists and historians to the general body of spherical, circular, disc-like, or
wedged shaped "bogies", sometimes seeming to glow, shine, or reflect a high degree of illumination seen mostly by
World War II pilots or flight crews. They usually paralleled or followed aircraft and were seen by aviators on all sides of
the action, being reported by American, British, German and Japanese crews. No Foo Fighter was known or reported to have made
or attempted any sort of contact, interaction or attack. They were known, however, for their high rate of speed and agility,
being much faster than any known aircraft at the time as well as being extremely maneuverable, often exhibiting highly unconventional
abilities such as instantaneous acceleration and deceleration, rapid climbing and descent and hovering in place.
In today's world a Foo Fighter would be called a UFO, an Unidentified Flying Object, of which, by all accounts, Foo
Fighters were. Some descriptions such as "glowing balls of light" or "spherical fire" do not fit the conventional
image of UFOs, but the disc and wedge shaped objects do --- as does the unconventional maneuverability. Both those aspects,
disc or wedge shape and unconventional maneuverability, have been attributed to many UFO or Flying Saucer accounts, but most
especially so to one of the most high profile ones, the so-called Roswell UFO. Here an object of unknown nature broke up over
the barren ranchland near Roswell, New Mexico, late one night in July 1947. Although the Roswell Incident was originally reported
in the local paper within a few days of the crash by the local paper as being a flying saucer or a flying disc, the main body
of the object was reported by some eyewitnesses as being wedge or delta shaped. W.C. Holden, an archaeologist, reportedly
stumbled across the downed craft early in the morning following the crash. He was one of the first to see it and described
it as "as looking like a crashed airplane without wings with a flat fuselage" with some reports implying the fuselage
had a definite delta or wedge shape to it. It must be stated in contrast, however, that another archaeologist, known as Cactus
Jack Campbell, while he did not have the reputation of Holden--- but who had nevertheless seen the aerial apparitions called
Foo Fighters during World War II first hand himself --- reported being "out there when the spaceship came down"
and seeing a "round object but not real big". What became known as Foo Fighters were reported by the British as
early as September 1941, with regular sightings by all sides continuing, except for a several month lull in 1943, throughout
the war. On the U.S. side, although sightings occurred periodically before the deployment of P-61 Black Widows in Europe,
it was the P-61 nightfighter pilots that were among the first American military men to regularly report seeing Foo Fighters,
saying "unknown objects" followed or paralleled their planes and glowed in the dark. It is said the night fighters
shot at them a few times, but the fire was never returned. It is also thought it was the pilots of the Black Widows that finally
gave the UFOs the nickname that stuck: "Foo-Fighters", a term picked up from the then popular Smokey Stover comic
strip. Interestingly enough, with all the sightings and reports and all the gun cameras and high altitude photographs, no
truly good pictures of Foo Fighters from the period have surfaced. A widely circulated photo showing what is alleged to be
both a wedge-shaped and spherical-shaped Foo Fighter together with two Japanese planes is perhaps the most often depicted
when citing Foo Fighters. The photo, from the 1975 photo-history by the Italians, G. De Turris & S. Fusco, "Obiettivo
sugli UFO", has both its supporters and detractors. If the picture was taken by Japanese photographers, which it surely
must have been, it would seem, except for a quest for truth, they would have no vested interest in continuing or falsely perpetrating
a myth. Not all aerial objects otherwise left unidentified in World War II were Foo Fighters or unexplained phenomenons such
as Green Fireballs. Nor were they necessarily small in size either. Some were downright gigantic. The most infamous was an
object seen by literally thousands of people along the coast of California barely three months into the war. The UFO over
Los Angeles is mostly forgotten now, but during the early morning hours of February 25, 1942 the whole city and surrounding
communities were in an uproar as thousands of rounds of anti aircraft shells were expended to pull down whatever it was out
of the sky that night. The slow moving object, said to be as big or bigger than a Zeppelin, was caught in the glare of the
searchlights from Santa Monica to Long Beach and seemed impervious to the constant barrage of shells. It eventually disappeared
out over the Pacific after cruising along the coast and cutting inland for a while. The huge object was never clearly explained
and was basically hushed up without response from the authorities.
Some great free aircraft wallpaper
Aircraft Wallpaper
An airship or
dirigible is a lighter than air (buoyant) aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers.
Unlike other aerodynamic aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft (air planes) and helicopters, which produce lift by moving a
wing or airfoil through the air, aerostatic aircraft, such as airships and hot air balloons, stay aloft by filling a large
cavity, such as a balloon, with a lighter than air gas.
The main types of airship are Non-rigid airships (or blimps),
semi-rigid airships and rigid airships. Blimps are small airships without internal skeletons. Semi-rigid airships are slightly
larger and have some form of internal support such as a fixed keel. Rigid airships with a full skeleton, such as the massive
Zeppelin transoceanic models, are now a thing of the past.
Airships were the first aircraft to make controlled, powered
flight. They were widely used before the 1940s. Their use decreased over time as their capabilities were surpassed by those
of air planes. Their decline furthered with a series of high-profile accidents, including the 1937 burning of the hydrogen-filled
Hindenburg near Lakehurst, New Jersey. Airships are still used today in certain niche applications, such as advertising and
as a camera platform for sporting events.
The Wright brothers,
Orville (August 15, 1871 January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 May 30, 1912), were two Americans who are generally
credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and
sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying
machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright
brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made mechanical fixed wing flight possible.
The brothers'
fundamental breakthrough was their invention of "three axis-control", which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft
effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method became standard on fixed wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning
of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on unlocking the secrets of control to conquer "the flying problem",
rather than developing more powerful engines as some other experimenters did. Their careful wind tunnel tests produced better
aeronautical data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers more effective than any before.
Their U.S. patent claims the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulates a flying machine's surfaces
British aviators
Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in June 1919. They flew a modified World War I Vickers
Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador to Clifden, Ireland, which became the second aircraft (and the
first landplane) to fly across the Atlantic. (Two weeks earlier, the first trans-Atlantic flight had been made by the NC-4,
a United States Navy flying boat, commanded by Lt. Commander Albert Cushing Read, who flew from Rockaway Beach, Long Island,
to Plymouth, England with a crew of five, over 23 days, with six stops along the way.
The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe
2) was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight, the progenitor of all modern
rockets including the Saturn V moon rocket. Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the German Wehrmacht against
Allied targets in World War II. As many as 20,000 slave labourers died constructing V-2s compared to the 7,000 military personnel
and civilians that died from the V-2's use in combat
The Lancaster and Spitfires
Experimental
rocket powered aircraft were developed by the Germans as early as World War II, and about 29 were manufactured and deployed.
The first fixed wing aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight was a rocket plane- the Bell X-1. The later North
American X-15 was another important rocket plane that broke many speed and altitude records and laid much of the groundwork
for later aircraft and spacecraft design. Rocket aircraft are not in common usage today, although rocket-assisted take offs
are used for some military aircraft. Space Ship One is the most famous current rocket aircraft, being the test bed for developing
a commercial sub-orbital passenger service; another rocket plane is the XCOR EZ-Rocket; and there is of course the Space Shuttle.
The National Archives has a huge collection of records
On the 14th of
June the Vickers-Vimy Rolls-Royce biplane, piloted by John Alcock and with Arthur Whitten Brown as observer-navigator, left
St. John's, Newfoundland, and arrived at Clifden, Ireland, in sixteen hours twelve minutes, having made the first non-stop
transatlantic flight. Hawker and Grieve meanwhile had made the same gallant attempt in a single-engined Sopwith machine; and
had come down in mid-ocean, after flying fourteen and a half hours, owing to the failure of their water circulation. Their
rescue by slow Danish Mary completed a fascinating tale of heroic adventure. The British dirigible R34, with Major G. H. Scott
in command, left East Fortune, Scotland, on the 2d of July, and arrived at Mineola, New York, on the sixth. The R34 made the
return voyage in seventy-five hours. In November, 1919, Captain Sir Ross Smith set off from England in a biplane to win a
prize of ten thousand pounds offered by the Australian Commonwealth to the first Australian aviator to fly from England to
Australia in thirty days. Over France, Italy, Greece, over the Holy Land, perhaps over the Garden of Eden, whence the winged
cherubim drove Adam and Eve, over Persia, India, Siam, the Dutch East Indies to Port Darwin in northern Australia; and then
south eastward across Australia itself to Sydney, the biplane flew without mishap. The time from Hounslow, England, to Port
Darwin was twenty-seven days, twenty hours, and twenty minutes. Early in 1920 the Boer airman Captain Van Ryneveld made the
flight from Cairo to the Cape.
Are you trying to identify a vintage wooden airplane propeller?
In the Battle
of Britain in the late summer of 1940, during the Second World War, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the German
Luftwaffe, helping foil Hitler's plans for an invasion of the British Isles, and prompting Prime Minister Winston Churchill
to say in the House of Commons on August 20, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so
few".
The largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command.
While RAF bombing attacks against Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war, from 1942 onwards, under the
leadership of Air Chief Marshal Harris, these attacks became increasingly devastating as new technology and greater numbers
of superior aircraft became available. Controversially, the RAF adopted a policy of night-time area bombing that saw raids
on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden. Other units, however, developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations,
such as the "Dambusters" raid by No. 617 Squadron
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts and is now
based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first true aviation company in the world, and was a manufacturer
of flying boats during the 1920s and 1930s and throughout the Second World War. In the immediate post-war period they received
orders for several military and experimental aircraft; from the 1960s Shorts turned primarily to the production of cargo aircraft.
In 1989 the company was bought by Bombardier. Within Bombardier Aerospace, Shorts designs and manufactures nacelle systems,
fuselages and flight controls. Shorts is the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland. Today the company's products
include aircraft components and engine nacelles for its parent company Bombardier Aerospace, and for Boeing, Rolls-Royce Deutschland,
General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.
The Spitfire was a single-seat fighter plane manufactured
by Supermarine, and designed by R.J. Mitchell. Mitchell continued to make modifications to the plane until his death in 1937.
The Spitfire made its combat debut came on October 16, 1939. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World
War II and gained immortal fame during the summer months of 1940 by helping to defeat the German air attacks during the Battle
of Britain. The Spitfire and Mitchell are often credited with winning the Battle of Britain.
A favorite of its
pilots, the Spitfire saw service during the all of World War II, in all theatres of the war, and in many different variants.
There were 24 marks and many sub-variants for each mark. In fact, between 1938 and 1948, more than 20,300 examples of all
variants were built, including two-seat trainers.
There was also a naval version of the Spitfire, called the Seafire.
These planes were specially adapted for operation from naval aircraft carriers. There were over 2,000 of these planes built.
Along with the RAF, Spitfires served with most of the Allied air forces in World War II, including the Royal Canadian
Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), South African Air Force (SAAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).
The RAAF, the Royal Indian Air Force and the RAF also used Spitfires against Japanese forces in the Pacific theatre. The Spitfire
was one of only a few foreign aircraft to see service with the United States Army Air Forces.
After World War II,
the Spitfire remained in use with many air forces around the world. Some Spitfires remained in service well into the 1950s.
It was the only fighter aircraft that was in continual production before, during and after the war. The Spitfire was retired
by the RAF in 1952.
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