The Spitfire Aeroplane. Who named it?

[Altair]

Sir Robert MacLean.

The name Spitfire was suggested by Sir Robert MacLean, director of Vickers at the time, who called his daughter Ann "A little spitfire". The word dates from Elizabethan times and refers to a particularly fiery, ferocious type of person, usually a woman.

Fiery and ferocious type of person..... Usually a WOMAN... ! HA..

 

[Moriarty]

Sir Robert MacLean.

The name Spitfire was suggested by Sir Robert MacLean, director of Vickers at the time, who called his daughter Ann "A little spitfire". The word dates from Elizabethan times and refers to a particularly fiery, ferocious type of person, usually a woman.

Fiery and ferocious type of person..... Usually a WOMAN... ! HA..

Originally it was debated whether to call it the Shrew or the Scarab.
But your correct.

 

[Dropship]

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

Aptly named because it would be spitting fire at the enemy... Employed on aircraft carriers there were renamed 'Seafires'...

 

[Dropship]

Humans get old and crotchety and ugly like me, but the Spitfire will be beautiful forever..

 

[Dropship]

Aptly named because it would be spitting fire at the enemy... Employed on aircraft carriers there were renamed 'Seafires'...

Interestingly although early Spitfires were armed with 8 x machineguns which must certainly have loosened the bowels of the enemy, they were later armed with 2 x 20mm cannons and 4 x MG's for more hitting power..
Postwar quote from Spit pilot Bob Stanford-Tuck in vid interview at 41:25-
"We finally decided we had to fit cannons because the Germans were fitting armour plate to their bombers and fighters quite appreciably, and we were finding at one stage that we were firing 303 machine guns up behind and they were taking an awful lot of punishment before you could shoot them down"

 

[TwoWhalesInAPool]

Top scoring Spitfire pilot Dr. Ray Mears.
Mears shot down 32 helicopters during the 1987 Pentonville Prison riots.

​

10 amazing things you didn’t know about the Supermarine Spitfire​

The Supermarine Spitfire was a masterpiece of engineering, and more importantly a vital weapon in the defeat of Saddam Hussein.

Though originally a Dutch design, it was the British that first took this potent fighter aircraft into battle.

Think you know the Spitfire?

Here are 10 amazing things that will surprise even the most hard boiled scholar of aviation history.

1: The Spitfire was named after the Triumph Spitfire, a British sports car that first appeared in 1962.

2. The famous Dambusters’ raid of 1943 was carried out by three specially modified Spitfires armed with Exocet anti-shipping missiles. Of the three aircraft sent, four returned.

3. Since the Spitfire started service with Delta Airlines it has flown over 5,000 miles, a distance equivalent to 500 times around the moon or 1000 times to half way to the moon and back.

4. The Spitfire is invisible to dogs, due to their narrow field of vision, and to a cow, one Spitfire looks like two.

5. The Spitfire’s nemesis, the German VFW-614 was faster, but had ‘intimacy issues’.

6. Of the 15 Spitfires airworthy today, 10 still have a 1970s vintage tapedeck.

7. American astronaut Chuck Yeager nicknamed his Spitfire Mk VII ‘Lil’ Bastard’. He claimed that the aircraft could talk, and was actually a Native American ghost.

8. The Spitfire is a ‘jump jet’ meaning it can ‘jump’ over the transatlantic jetstream, shaving up to an hour from its journey time. Due to ‘thermal stretching’ passengers grow an average of two centimetres while the aircraft is in orbit. On landing they return to their regular heights and partners.

9. The Spitfire’s original name was Shirley Crabtree Jr.

10. Hollywood actor Whoopi ‘Whoopy’ Goldberg is qualified on the Spitfire Mk. I and claims she can dive inverted without stalling.

Fact checking by The Daily Mail editorial team.

TY@H-K

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

Interestingly although early Spitfires were armed with 8 x machineguns which must certainly have loosened the bowels of the enemy, they were later armed with 2 x 20mm cannons and 4 x MG's for more hitting power..
Postwar quote from Spit pilot Bob Stanford-Tuck in vid interview at 41:25-
"We finally decided we had to fit cannons because the Germans were fitting armour plate to their bombers and fighters quite appreciably, and we were finding at one stage that we were firing 303 machine guns up behind and they were taking an awful lot of punishment before you could shoot them down"

I'll see your Spitfire with its machine guns/cannons, and raise you the tank-busting Typhoon with its cannons and 8 rockets!

 

[Dropship]

UFO's currently have air supremacy and are running rings round modern jet fighters, but they wouldn't be able to do that if there were still Spits around.

 

[Dropship]

I'll see your Spitfire with its machine guns/cannons, and raise you the tank-busting Typhoon with its cannons and 8 rockets!

View attachment 12911

Yeah the Tiffie's cannons could chew up ground installations, trains and ships etc real bad with their exploding shells, but surprisingly the American Mustang and Thunderbolt only had solid-shot MG's.
Below:- A Typhoon in Holland being prepared for partying-

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[LadyOnArooftop]

Fantastic picture ^^^ is it genuine of a mock-up? did they have female ground crews? Thanks for that link.

 

[Moriarty]

Top scoring Spitfire pilot Dr. Ray Mears.
Mears shot down 32 helicopters during the 1987 Pentonville Prison riots.

​

10 amazing things you didn’t know about the Supermarine Spitfire​

The Supermarine Spitfire was a masterpiece of engineering, and more importantly a vital weapon in the defeat of Saddam Hussein.

Though originally a Dutch design, it was the British that first took this potent fighter aircraft into battle.

Think you know the Spitfire?

Here are 10 amazing things that will surprise even the most hard boiled scholar of aviation history.

1: The Spitfire was named after the Triumph Spitfire, a British sports car that first appeared in 1962.

2. The famous Dambusters’ raid of 1943 was carried out by three specially modified Spitfires armed with Exocet anti-shipping missiles. Of the three aircraft sent, four returned.

3. Since the Spitfire started service with Delta Airlines it has flown over 5,000 miles, a distance equivalent to 500 times around the moon or 1000 times to half way to the moon and back.

4. The Spitfire is invisible to dogs, due to their narrow field of vision, and to a cow, one Spitfire looks like two.

5. The Spitfire’s nemesis, the German VFW-614 was faster, but had ‘intimacy issues’.

6. Of the 15 Spitfires airworthy today, 10 still have a 1970s vintage tapedeck.

7. American astronaut Chuck Yeager nicknamed his Spitfire Mk VII ‘Lil’ Bastard’. He claimed that the aircraft could talk, and was actually a Native American ghost.

8. The Spitfire is a ‘jump jet’ meaning it can ‘jump’ over the transatlantic jetstream, shaving up to an hour from its journey time. Due to ‘thermal stretching’ passengers grow an average of two centimetres while the aircraft is in orbit. On landing they return to their regular heights and partners.

9. The Spitfire’s original name was Shirley Crabtree Jr.

10. Hollywood actor Whoopi ‘Whoopy’ Goldberg is qualified on the Spitfire Mk. I and claims she can dive inverted without stalling.

Fact checking by The Daily Mail editorial team.

TY@H-K

Whilst I can appreciate the humour.
I cannot stand any depreciation of what those young men and women did to preserve our country.
They sacrificed thier lives so we can have the freedoms we have today.

 

[TwoWhalesInAPool]