SPITFIRE: A TEST PILOTS STORY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Jeffrey Quill | 336 pages | 01 Nov 1998 | Crecy Publishing | 9780947554729 | English | Cheshire, United Kingdom The First Of The Few - Spitfire ()

This last detail suggests that many location scenes with the three main characters ended up on the cutting-room floor. Posted to a secret forward- recon unit then training nearby at Poole, he had been given leave to star in the film, but was still so impressed by the young pilots that at the end of filming, he paid for a weekend for them all at the Savoy. For the finale, the pilots acted out a dogfight, performing various manoeuvres, including tackling enemy bombers played by a captured Heinkel. All footage had to be shot between combat operations, and some of the pilots you see at the beginning did not live to see themselves on screen. Left: Moyles Court manor outside Ringwood can be seen in the background of some shots. The young airman pictured was a real Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot. On 31st May , Howard and his manager took a commercial flight to Lisbon to attend the film's premiere in Portugal, where it received a best-film medal. He also discussed the possibility of an Anglo-Spanish co-production about Columbus, and flew back June 1st. It broke up in mid-air over the Bay Of Biscay, and everyone aboard was lost. Germany released a statement the shootdown was due to a misidentification. That is, in one fell swoop the Luftwaffe publicly downed the producer, director and star of a current propaganda film promoting British air supremacy. The alternative explanation was offered by Churchill after the war that incompetent enemy agents at Lisbon had misidentified Howard and his chubby, balding manager as Churchill and his bodyguard, both of whom were visiting Algiers at the time "a tragedy which much distressed me ". This theory features in TV historical documentary series like Churchill's Bodyguard. The scenario here is that Churchill was due to fly home from the Algiers Conference that day in a US Liberator bomber flying the same route over the sea, but heard of the assassination plan via Enigma intelligence decrypts and flew home a day later, using the excuse of a mechanical fault to protect the Enigma code-breaking secret. Portugal being neutral in the war, Lisbon was able to run commercial flights used by Axis as well as neutral and Allied VIPs Casablanca fans will remember how the plot revolves around the daily Lisbon plane. Being used by both sides at VIP level as well by neutrals, these flights normally operated without interference. Nevertheless, the flight out Howard originally planned to take was also attacked, managing to escape at wavetop level despite damage. Repaired, it was this same aircraft that was shot down on its return journey. Churchill himself later commented it was hard to understand the Germans could have been so stupid as to believe their agent's report he was travelling on a neutral civilian airliner. The idea agents believed Churchill, as the Nazis' number-one assassination target, would take an ordinary passenger flight via Lisbon over the Atlantic is a not very credible scenario. And the fact the plane was attacked on the way out contradicts the story. This seems to add credence to the scenario suggested by Churchill's Bodyguard the Prime Minister was able to fly home unmolested as the Germans believed for several days they had already shot him down, not realising or believing they had killed Howard. Howard's son, the Dorset-resident actor and art collector Ronald Howard, in his biography In Search Of My Father , suggests the Germans actually got the idea of killing him in this way from Hamlet from which Howard did readings in Lisbon. In the play, the thoughtful young prince who disputes the legitimacy of the new regime is sent across the sea to be assassinated on a pretext. Earlier, the turncoat broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw whose voice is heard in the film, and who had in lived outside Ringwood, near RAF Ibsley where Howard would film had announced Howard was on a death-list, and would be liquidated in good time. The headline in Goebbels's propaganda newspaper was "Pimpernel Howard has made his last trip, " a reference to his update of his Scarlet Pimpernel role in his previous anti-Nazi propaganda film Pimpernel Smith. There are also claims Howard had a real-life 'Pimpernel' role of his own, that he was on a secret diplomatic mission, the Columbus film project being a front for negotiating tactical concessions from Franco, who had been making discreet political overtures to Britain. The actor's son suggests the shootdown may have been a warning to Franco. German radio described the shoot-down as an "error of judgement. He was the very image of the gentle, normally harmless English aristocrat, and killing him would have done the Germans no good at all in the propaganda department. Howard was shot down just as the film premiered in the USA, and US as well as British reviews often mention the fact its director-star was killed when the Luftwaffe shot down an unarmed civilian passenger plane. The incident validated warnings by Howard and others that fascism was simply a veneer for a murderous tyranny. Mitchell, the film and the popular concert suite adapted from its music score thus also are a memorial to another talented patriotic Englishman, Leslie Howard. In the early scenes we see Mitchell struggling for recognition and having to resign in protest at a blinkered management who can't grasp the potential of his monoplane design "looks just like a damn bird with boots on". He also had his own pilot's licence. He did not simply work on a single 'dream' concept, but was a very practical man who designed over twenty different aircraft, from light planes to a long-distance flying boat that flew round the world, and was working on a high-speed heavy bomber when he died. The plans were destroyed in a Luftwaffe raid on the Southampton Vickers plant which killed many workers. Mitchell's first design, an open-cockpit gull-wing monoplane with fixed undercarriage just as we see in the sketch , was rejected when it proved unable to carry the required 8-gun load. Mitchell then designed a new closed-cockpit prototype, with a Rolls Royce engine and the now-familiar elliptical wing with retractable undercarriage, which became the Mark I. Though Mitchell died in , the Spitfire continued to be developed , the Vickers design team carrying out regular modifications to keep the plane competitive as Germany improved their fighter designs. It was the only British plane that was in continuous production throughout the war. The pilot played by David Niven is a composite character, there being no single pilot who flew the seaplane races and tested the Spitfire. Quill also flew the plane in the recreation shot especially for the film in November , of the prototype test flight which impressed the RAF brass. Mitchell's illness in the film is delicately unspecified, and depicted as coming later in life than it did, with an implication it was something that could be alleviated if not cured by rest. In fact Mitchell had the same condition that comedian Will Hay survived in the year the film came out: bowel or rectal cancer. Mitchell was not so lucky as Hay. In , he collapsed and underwent a colostomy, after having a malignant section of intestine removed. See still below. The German holiday depicted in the film was actually to convalesce from his operation, though the notion the trip alerted him to Nazi re-armament and bully-boy ambitions seems to have a basis in fact. Two days after the prototype's maiden flight on March 5, , the first German troops marched into the Rhineland demilitarized zone. In , after three years unstinting work on the Spitfire and his planned new high-speed bomber never built , he went to Vienna for specialist treatment, but returned soon after to die in Southampton. His year old son and biographer still campaigns to have the airfield renamed to commemorate this maiden flight. That Howard kept his slender boyish looks even at age 50 allowed him to credibly play a man ageing from his mids to age While thus on holiday watching the gulls wheel above the clifftops, Mitchell is inspired, in the manner of inventor Leonardo Da Vinci, to the possibility of a plane that would have the grace of a bird, and could swoop like one. One of the DVD issues of the restored film on the Odyssey label includes comments by the real Jeffrey Quill the basis of the David Niven character saying the idea Mitchell was inspired by gulls is fantasy. His Dictionary Of National Biography entry says his brilliance was the way, as a practical engineer, he integrated many refinements seen in various American Curtiss and German Junkers aircraft designs. The quote seems to be officially accepted as genuine, and was recently used as a question on University Challenge by Jeremy Paxman, who himself had nominated the Spitfire in as a British Design Icon. Mitchell's son and biographer has said "My father thought the name Spitfire was a bit silly. One reason he may have felt the name silly was that it had become associated with Hollywood. A series of films made from on, starring actress Lupe Velez, was known by her own personal nickname, the Mexican Spitfire. It was an old slang term for a type of fiery, hot-tempered female who will fight to do things her way. At war's end, director Carol Reed tried to get a Lady Godiva historical comedy made under the title Spitfire. In fact the name itself had tremendous propaganda value it worked in German - as in 'Achtung, Spitfeuer! The rest of the film is flashbacks covering , starting the day Mitchell shows his first sketch for a gull-winged monoplane, and ending the day he dies. Note there are 2 versions of the film, the shorter US version being titled Spitfire. Mouse over titles photo at left to see US main title. The film has been cut in many prints by up to forty minutes, and for study purposes I include below a breakdown of the main sequences and key scenes, with any relevant production notes in parentheses. I've bundled a few minor scenes in with the major ones to keep the listing of manageable length, but if anyone out there spots any significant omissions below, please email me. Note that the standard UK DVD release, with the minute version, lists only 19 chapters, but some of these incorporate several scenes as one. A lengthy documentary prologue portrays the current war almost as a religious crusade, against a return of 'mediaeval tyranny'. Albert Ball vc. In the 1st World War the daring exploits of pilot Albert Ball caught the imagination In the 1st World War the daring exploits of pilot Albert Ball caught the imagination of the British public like no other. View Product. Bentley Motors The winged 'B' emblem, the hallmark of Bentley Motors, is synonymous with those grand cars The winged 'B' emblem, the hallmark of Bentley Motors, is synonymous with those grand cars which in the s and 30s dominated Brooklands and Le Mans. Malcolm Bobbitt recalls Bentley development in the late s and early s which led Early British Grand Prix. Motor racing originated on French public roads and could be said to have begun in Motor racing originated on French public roads and could be said to have begun in Britain in May with a series of time and load carrying trials at Crystal Palace Park in London. Later in the same year, races Enemy Coast Ahead. See all 2 brand new listings. About this product Product Information An exceptional test pilot, Jeffrey Quill took charge of some of the most important military aircraft of his time and, in particular, the immortal Spitfire from its experimental, prototype stage in to the end of its production in He used his first-hand experience of combat conditions fighting with 65 Squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain to help turn this elegant flying machine into a deadly fighter airplane. Show More Show Less. Add to Cart. Any Condition Any Condition. No ratings or reviews yet No ratings or reviews yet. Be the first to write a review. Best Selling in Nonfiction See all. 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Be the first to write a review. Best Selling in Nonfiction See all. Bill o'Reilly's Killing Ser. When Women Pray Hardcover T. Jakes Christian Inspirational No ratings or reviews yet. Save on Nonfiction Trending price is based on prices over last 90 days. You may also like. Jeffrey Archer Books. Test Bank Books. Tests Books. Books Jeffrey Archer. Name required. Mail will not be published required. RSS Feed. Popular tags airshows aviation art history miscellaneous people Reference Spitfire Mk. V Tamiya warbirds Other tags Available to buy from Amazon. Highly recommended. Review book provided by the reviewer. Mitchell's first design, an open-cockpit gull-wing monoplane with fixed undercarriage just as we see in the sketch , was rejected when it proved unable to carry the required 8-gun load. Mitchell then designed a new closed-cockpit prototype, with a Rolls Royce engine and the now-familiar elliptical wing with retractable undercarriage, which became the Mark I. Though Mitchell died in , the Spitfire continued to be developed , the Vickers design team carrying out regular modifications to keep the plane competitive as Germany improved their fighter designs. It was the only British plane that was in continuous production throughout the war. The pilot played by David Niven is a composite character, there being no single pilot who flew the seaplane races and tested the Spitfire. Quill also flew the plane in the recreation shot especially for the film in November , of the prototype test flight which impressed the RAF brass. Mitchell's illness in the film is delicately unspecified, and depicted as coming later in life than it did, with an implication it was something that could be alleviated if not cured by rest. In fact Mitchell had the same condition that comedian Will Hay survived in the year the film came out: bowel or rectal cancer. Mitchell was not so lucky as Hay. In , he collapsed and underwent a colostomy, after having a malignant section of intestine removed. See still below. The German holiday depicted in the film was actually to convalesce from his operation, though the notion the trip alerted him to Nazi re-armament and bully-boy ambitions seems to have a basis in fact. Two days after the prototype's maiden flight on March 5, , the first German troops marched into the Rhineland demilitarized zone. In , after three years unstinting work on the Spitfire and his planned new high-speed bomber never built , he went to Vienna for specialist treatment, but returned soon after to die in Southampton. His year old son and biographer still campaigns to have the airfield renamed to commemorate this maiden flight. That Howard kept his slender boyish looks even at age 50 allowed him to credibly play a man ageing from his mids to age While thus on holiday watching the gulls wheel above the clifftops, Mitchell is inspired, in the manner of inventor Leonardo Da Vinci, to the possibility of a plane that would have the grace of a bird, and could swoop like one. One of the DVD issues of the restored film on the Odyssey label includes comments by the real Jeffrey Quill the basis of the David Niven character saying the idea Mitchell was inspired by gulls is fantasy. His Dictionary Of National Biography entry says his brilliance was the way, as a practical engineer, he integrated many refinements seen in various American Curtiss and German Junkers aircraft designs. The quote seems to be officially accepted as genuine, and was recently used as a question on University Challenge by Jeremy Paxman, who himself had nominated the Spitfire in as a British Design Icon. Mitchell's son and biographer has said "My father thought the name Spitfire was a bit silly. One reason he may have felt the name silly was that it had become associated with Hollywood. A series of films made from on, starring actress Lupe Velez, was known by her own personal nickname, the Mexican Spitfire. It was an old slang term for a type of fiery, hot-tempered female who will fight to do things her way. At war's end, director Carol Reed tried to get a Lady Godiva historical comedy made under the title Spitfire. In fact the name itself had tremendous propaganda value it worked in German - as in 'Achtung, Spitfeuer! The rest of the film is flashbacks covering , starting the day Mitchell shows his first sketch for a gull-winged monoplane, and ending the day he dies. Note there are 2 versions of the film, the shorter US version being titled Spitfire. Mouse over titles photo at left to see US main title. The film has been cut in many prints by up to forty minutes, and for study purposes I include below a breakdown of the main sequences and key scenes, with any relevant production notes in parentheses. I've bundled a few minor scenes in with the major ones to keep the listing of manageable length, but if anyone out there spots any significant omissions below, please email me. Note that the standard UK DVD release, with the minute version, lists only 19 chapters, but some of these incorporate several scenes as one. A lengthy documentary prologue portrays the current war almost as a religious crusade, against a return of 'mediaeval tyranny'. We hear excerpts of speeches of Lord Haw-Haw, Churchill, Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering, all setting the scene for this pivotal moment in history in mid - "a fateful summer for the world. An opening scene set on the climactic day of the Battle of Britain, September 15th 'Zero Day' , as the Luftwaffe amounts its largest-scale onslaught. The RAF control room prepares for a large-scale air raid while the Spitfires seek out the enemy. At a front-line airfield supposedly 'Seafield' near the town of 'Ringford' in Sussex , real pilots exchange snippets of authentic banter. We see a flight returning, with one plane crash-landing. David Niven appears at this point, in his only surviving on-location scene. Waiting at their Dispersal Point a soundstage setup , the young pilots discuss the thrill they get just from seeing the Spitfire and exchange rumours about its legendary designer. Niven, as Geoffrey Crisp, Mitchell's former chief test pilot and now the older Station Commander, begins to tell them about the real Mitchell, and how the Spitfire came into existence. The flashback scenes begin with Mitchell on the cliffs in as he watches gulls hovering overhead, and tells his wife about his dream of a plane that will fly like a bird. The clifftop-picnic scene had to be shot down in Cornwall, at Polperro, this being the closest the crew could film coastline without WWII barbed wire in shot. Although the Sealion flying-boat biplane he helped design for Supermarine has just won the new annual Schneider International Seaplane Race flying at mph , he gets sent back to the assembly shop for two years, his 'gull' style plane sketch ignored. The race, won by the US, is seen via a montage incorporating newsreel footage. Ex WWI pilot Crisp, an old school pal, arrives for a test pilot job at Supermarine, and Mitchell shows him his bird-style monoplane design. The still from this scene, used at the top of this page, was also used for the video sleeve. His monoplane proposal is turned down by the board, so he resigns. After a tense week, Supermarine management relent, and give him the go-ahead. His design is adopted in time for Supermarine to compete in the Baltimore race against the top American entry, Doolittle's Curtiss, but the monoplane's speed in a tight turn causes Crisp to black out, and he crashes and is hospitalised. With the Italian race, Fascist politics first raise their head with Mussolini's spokesman played in caricature by a British studio chief. The Supermarine wins at mph. Vickers Armaments buys Supermarine Aviation to get Mitchell working for them. He announces he wants to build a plane for the future. At the celebration party for the new model S6 winning the trophy in the race, only glimpsed , the ultra-patriotic Lady Houston arrives from her yacht lit up with the sign "Wake Up England" and Mitchell tells her England is in danger not just from the sea but from the air. When the Government declines to help subsidise Vickers's enterprise, Lady Houston comes through with a large cheque. Crisp and the Mitchells visit a German gliding club, and then a 'Richthofen Club' dinner attended by Dr Messerschmitt. Indiscreet remarks by a drunken young Nazi aviator alert Mitch and Crisp to German determination to re-arm and conquer, convincing him England needs a modern fighter plane. He starts to lobby for a British fighter - "the fastest and deadliest fighting aeroplane in the world" , which will use the new Merlin engine. His secretary tells Crisp she is concerned he is suffering from exhaustion brought on by overwork. Crisp takes Mitchell home to rest, where he tells Crisp the plane must climb to 10, feet and dive at mph and carry an armament of 8 machine-guns. It must be 'a bird that breathes fire and spits out death and destruction - a spit-fire bird. At a visit to a Harley Street consultant, Mitchell learns the truth about his condition unspecified , and is told he must take a year off or be dead within the year, but returns even more determined. The race to build the prototype is shown, a combination of drawing-board and machine-shop documentary scenes set to Walton's 'Spitfire Fugue. Returning home at dawn, Mitchell agrees to his wife's plea he take a break, confessing he is dangerously ill. But he is moved to a final spurt of effort by seeing a newspaper headline that Nazi dive-bombers have destroyed a Spanish village. This would be the Guernica atrocity, commemorated in Picasso's famous painting, where Franco's German-supplied dive-bombers destroyed a 'rebel' Spanish village in - the first demonstration of how air supremacy allowed the bombing and strafing of helpless civilian populations, a forewarning of things to come. The 'building-the-Spitfire' montage set to Walton's fast-tempo 'Spitfire Fugue' resumes and comes to a triumphant conclusion as the completed prototype is wheeled out [ see inset left, for details ]. The prototype a MKII was used is put through its paces by Crisp for the Ministry top brass, soaring over the landscape to a sound that would become familiar to the British public, the Spitfire's Merlin engine. The plane flies a loop, climbs to 10, feet, and swoops down on the airfield at mph. Spitfire: A Test Pilots Story | Model Flying

We will process your order as soon as we can. If, for whatever reason, you need to return an item to us , it must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging. Our policy lasts 30 days. Non-returnable items:. To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase. There are certain situations where only partial refunds are granted if applicable. Shipping costs are non- refundable. If you receive a refund, the cost of return shipping will be deducted from your refund. Full details for returns policy can be found here. Close menu. Flight Store Home. Why shop with us? Postage Costs and Delivery Options. Privacy Policy. Return Policy. World War II: When war broke out Alex volunteered for service with the RAF but, while waiting for his application to be processed, was invited instead to join Vickers as a test pilot. Though initially testing Wellington Bombers, he soon moved on to Spitfires and was appointed chief production test pilot for Spitfires and Lancasters. Alex oversaw a team of 25 pilots, and flew more than 2, Spitfires, plus other planes, testing up to 20 aircraft a day. It could be dangerous work; Henshaw suffered a number of engine failures, and on one occasion, while flying over a built-up area, crash-landed between two rows of houses. The wings of his aircraft sheared off, and the engine and propeller finished up on someone's kitchen table. Henshaw was left sitting in the small cockpit section with only minor injuries. Successes: Once he was asked to put on a show for the Lord Mayor of Birmingham's Spitfire Fund by flying at high speed above the city's main street. The civic dignitaries were furious when he inverted the aircraft, flying upside down over the town hall. For his services during the war Henshaw was appointed MBE, though there were many who thought he deserved far more. To mark the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire, in March , the year-old Henshaw flew over Southampton in a two-seater Spitfire. In he donated his papers, art collection, photographs and trophies to the RAF Museum. So serious in fact that he actively sought to obtain first-hand combat experience with the Spitfire during the Battle of Britain, or took assignment onboard a Royal Navy carrier to help solving the Seafire landing problems. Therefore a day would come when the aeroplane decided that it was in charge instead of the pilot, and that would be the last day. I never had cause to modify that view, and I kept my aerobatics well honed to the day of my last flight as a pilot. His memoir is not limited to the Spitfire. Luckily, he did no such thing. In my opinion, this book provides definitive, first-hand explanation to the intriguing question why extending the range of the Spitfire proved so difficult, the many modifications to ailerons and elevators, or what it took to make the aircraft suitable for deck landings at sea. A cheerful man with a sense of humour, Jeffrey Quill was admired, respected and liked by those who knew him. For a general history reader, his memoir is an excellent and absorbing book, and a great testimony of a foregone era in aviation.

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Nevertheless, the flight out Howard originally planned to take was also attacked, managing to escape at wavetop level despite damage. Repaired, it was this same aircraft that was shot down on its return journey. Churchill himself later commented it was hard to understand the Germans could have been so stupid as to believe their agent's report he was travelling on a neutral civilian airliner. The idea agents believed Churchill, as the Nazis' number-one assassination target, would take an ordinary passenger flight via Lisbon over the Atlantic is a not very credible scenario. And the fact the plane was attacked on the way out contradicts the story. This seems to add credence to the scenario suggested by Churchill's Bodyguard the Prime Minister was able to fly home unmolested as the Germans believed for several days they had already shot him down, not realising or believing they had killed Howard. Howard's son, the Dorset-resident actor and art collector Ronald Howard, in his biography In Search Of My Father , suggests the Germans actually got the idea of killing him in this way from Hamlet from which Howard did readings in Lisbon. In the play, the thoughtful young prince who disputes the legitimacy of the new regime is sent across the sea to be assassinated on a pretext. Earlier, the turncoat broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw whose voice is heard in the film, and who had in lived outside Ringwood, near RAF Ibsley where Howard would film had announced Howard was on a death-list, and would be liquidated in good time. The headline in Goebbels's propaganda newspaper was "Pimpernel Howard has made his last trip, " a reference to his update of his Scarlet Pimpernel role in his previous anti- Nazi propaganda film Pimpernel Smith. There are also claims Howard had a real-life 'Pimpernel' role of his own, that he was on a secret diplomatic mission, the Columbus film project being a front for negotiating tactical concessions from Franco, who had been making discreet political overtures to Britain. The actor's son suggests the shootdown may have been a warning to Franco. German radio described the shoot-down as an "error of judgement. He was the very image of the gentle, normally harmless English aristocrat, and killing him would have done the Germans no good at all in the propaganda department. Howard was shot down just as the film premiered in the USA, and US as well as British reviews often mention the fact its director-star was killed when the Luftwaffe shot down an unarmed civilian passenger plane. The incident validated warnings by Howard and others that fascism was simply a veneer for a murderous tyranny. Mitchell, the film and the popular concert suite adapted from its music score thus also are a memorial to another talented patriotic Englishman, Leslie Howard. In the early scenes we see Mitchell struggling for recognition and having to resign in protest at a blinkered management who can't grasp the potential of his monoplane design "looks just like a damn bird with boots on". He also had his own pilot's licence. He did not simply work on a single 'dream' concept, but was a very practical man who designed over twenty different aircraft, from light planes to a long-distance flying boat that flew round the world, and was working on a high-speed heavy bomber when he died. The plans were destroyed in a Luftwaffe raid on the Southampton Vickers plant which killed many workers. Mitchell's first design, an open-cockpit gull-wing monoplane with fixed undercarriage just as we see in the sketch , was rejected when it proved unable to carry the required 8-gun load. Mitchell then designed a new closed-cockpit prototype, with a Rolls Royce engine and the now-familiar elliptical wing with retractable undercarriage, which became the Mark I. Though Mitchell died in , the Spitfire continued to be developed , the Vickers design team carrying out regular modifications to keep the plane competitive as Germany improved their fighter designs. It was the only British plane that was in continuous production throughout the war. The pilot played by David Niven is a composite character, there being no single pilot who flew the seaplane races and tested the Spitfire. Quill also flew the plane in the recreation shot especially for the film in November , of the prototype test flight which impressed the RAF brass. Mitchell's illness in the film is delicately unspecified, and depicted as coming later in life than it did, with an implication it was something that could be alleviated if not cured by rest. In fact Mitchell had the same condition that comedian Will Hay survived in the year the film came out: bowel or rectal cancer. Mitchell was not so lucky as Hay. In , he collapsed and underwent a colostomy, after having a malignant section of intestine removed. See still below. The German holiday depicted in the film was actually to convalesce from his operation, though the notion the trip alerted him to Nazi re- armament and bully-boy ambitions seems to have a basis in fact. Two days after the prototype's maiden flight on March 5, , the first German troops marched into the Rhineland demilitarized zone. In , after three years unstinting work on the Spitfire and his planned new high-speed bomber never built , he went to Vienna for specialist treatment, but returned soon after to die in Southampton. His year old son and biographer still campaigns to have the airfield renamed to commemorate this maiden flight. That Howard kept his slender boyish looks even at age 50 allowed him to credibly play a man ageing from his mids to age While thus on holiday watching the gulls wheel above the clifftops, Mitchell is inspired, in the manner of inventor Leonardo Da Vinci, to the possibility of a plane that would have the grace of a bird, and could swoop like one. One of the DVD issues of the restored film on the Odyssey label includes comments by the real Jeffrey Quill the basis of the David Niven character saying the idea Mitchell was inspired by gulls is fantasy. His Dictionary Of National Biography entry says his brilliance was the way, as a practical engineer, he integrated many refinements seen in various American Curtiss and German Junkers aircraft designs. The quote seems to be officially accepted as genuine, and was recently used as a question on University Challenge by Jeremy Paxman, who himself had nominated the Spitfire in as a British Design Icon. Mitchell's son and biographer has said "My father thought the name Spitfire was a bit silly. One reason he may have felt the name silly was that it had become associated with Hollywood. A series of films made from on, starring actress Lupe Velez, was known by her own personal nickname, the Mexican Spitfire. It was an old slang term for a type of fiery, hot-tempered female who will fight to do things her way. At war's end, director Carol Reed tried to get a Lady Godiva historical comedy made under the title Spitfire. In fact the name itself had tremendous propaganda value it worked in German - as in 'Achtung, Spitfeuer! The rest of the film is flashbacks covering , starting the day Mitchell shows his first sketch for a gull-winged monoplane, and ending the day he dies. Note there are 2 versions of the film, the shorter US version being titled Spitfire. Mouse over titles photo at left to see US main title. The film has been cut in many prints by up to forty minutes, and for study purposes I include below a breakdown of the main sequences and key scenes, with any relevant production notes in parentheses. I've bundled a few minor scenes in with the major ones to keep the listing of manageable length, but if anyone out there spots any significant omissions below, please email me. Note that the standard UK DVD release, with the minute version, lists only 19 chapters, but some of these incorporate several scenes as one. A lengthy documentary prologue portrays the current war almost as a religious crusade, against a return of 'mediaeval tyranny'. We hear excerpts of speeches of Lord Haw-Haw, Churchill, Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering, all setting the scene for this pivotal moment in history in mid - "a fateful summer for the world. An opening scene set on the climactic day of the Battle of Britain, September 15th 'Zero Day' , as the Luftwaffe amounts its largest-scale onslaught. The RAF control room prepares for a large-scale air raid while the Spitfires seek out the enemy. At a front-line airfield supposedly 'Seafield' near the town of 'Ringford' in Sussex , real pilots exchange snippets of authentic banter. We see a flight returning, with one plane crash-landing. David Niven appears at this point, in his only surviving on-location scene. Waiting at their Dispersal Point a soundstage setup , the young pilots discuss the thrill they get just from seeing the Spitfire and exchange rumours about its legendary designer. Niven, as Geoffrey Crisp, Mitchell's former chief test pilot and now the older Station Commander, begins to tell them about the real Mitchell, and how the Spitfire came into existence. The flashback scenes begin with Mitchell on the cliffs in as he watches gulls hovering overhead, and tells his wife about his dream of a plane that will fly like a bird. The clifftop-picnic scene had to be shot down in Cornwall, at Polperro, this being the closest the crew could film coastline without WWII barbed wire in shot. Although the Sealion flying-boat biplane he helped design for Supermarine has just won the new annual Schneider International Seaplane Race flying at mph , he gets sent back to the assembly shop for two years, his 'gull' style plane sketch ignored. The race, won by the US, is seen via a montage incorporating newsreel footage. Ex WWI pilot Crisp, an old school pal, arrives for a test pilot job at Supermarine, and Mitchell shows him his bird-style monoplane design. The still from this scene, used at the top of this page, was also used for the video sleeve. His monoplane proposal is turned down by the board, so he resigns. After a tense week, Supermarine management relent, and give him the go- ahead. His memoir is not limited to the Spitfire. Luckily, he did no such thing. In my opinion, this book provides definitive, first-hand explanation to the intriguing question why extending the range of the Spitfire proved so difficult, the many modifications to ailerons and elevators, or what it took to make the aircraft suitable for deck landings at sea. A cheerful man with a sense of humour, Jeffrey Quill was admired, respected and liked by those who knew him. For a general history reader, his memoir is an excellent and absorbing book, and a great testimony of a foregone era in aviation. For a Spitfire nut, it is essential reading which will bring deeper understanding of the aircraft and the various meanders of its development history. Name required. Mail will not be published required. Forum sponsored by:. Get yourself a copy and you won't regret it! The experiences gained on the surface cooling systems having been tries on Schneider racers, in some instances For me the historic context, gives more colour to the story of the Spitfire, as has been said "a fusion of science and art". Latest Forum Posts. View All Topics. Q: Has the covid pandemic deterred you from attending shows and events in ? No, I'll be attending just as many as I usually do. No, but I'll choose my event with greater care. Yes, I'll attend fewer events going forward. Yes, I wont attend any where previously I have. Whizza by Nigel Hawes by FlyinBrian. Use our magazine locator link to find your nearest stockist! Community Sites. Model Engineering Get Woodworking. October Issue Rans Chaos plan! Subscribe Now Every issue delivered to your door. Renew Now Dont miss an issue! Great savings. Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator. 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