The British public first saw the Spitfire at the RAF Hendon air display on Saturday 27 June 1936. Although full-scale production was supposed to begin immediately, numerous problems could not be overcome for some time, and the first production Spitfire, K9787, did not roll off the Woolston, Southampton assembly line until mid-1938.
This 2018 exhibition celebrates the 80th anniversary of that first production aircraft. In ten chapters, we tell the story of this remarkable aircraft in pictures and words, organised into two parts.
White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead was the home of the Air Transport Auxiliary. They moved more Spits than any other type.
Part 1
- Introductory slides
- The need to modernise
- Supermarine Aviation Works Limited
- The design
- Battle of Britain
- Fighting the 109
- “Spitfire snobbery”
Part 2
- New weapons
- “Clipped, clapped and cropped”
- Spitfires in white, pink or blue
- New roles
- Higher, further faster
- Maidenhead and the Spitfire
