Spitfghter mark 1 airplane - Essay Example

SUSTAINABILITY AND CONDITION OF THE SPITFIRE Location Sustainability and Condition of the Spitfire The Spitfire is a fighter aircraft used by the British Royal Air Force and her allied forces during the Second World War. R J Mitchell designed it as a high performance, short-range, interceptor aircraft, which could be, used for both high altitude and ground-attack. It was one of the most robust and adaptable designs ever made during her time. In fact, it was healthy, and the only British fighter aircraft in continuous production before, during and after the war and produced in large quantities than any other plane.

After the war, the Spitfire served in several different roles, including photoreconnaissance, interceptor, fighter-bomber, and trainer. It continued in these roles until the mid-1950, when production stopped. Until today, the Spitfire continuous to be a favourite aircraft with 53 being airworthy and many more being used as displays in air museums and schools (Zandvoort 1957).The Spitfires design started in 1931 when Mitchell wanted to meet the Air ministry’s new specifications for a modern craft that was capable of 250 mph.

The design did not get off to a good start, the first one named Super-marine type 224, had a Rolls-Royce steam-cooled Griffon engine. Accordingly, the engine could only reach a top speed of 230 mph and had bulky gull wings with an open-cockpit. Mitchell and his team were disappointed but not discouraged; they immediately started on their next model designated Type 300. The aircraft went through several modifications, including smaller, thinner and elliptical shaped wings, an enclosed and blister-shaped cockpit, and oxygen-breathing apparatus and a more powerful Rolls-Royce PV-XII V-12 engine.

The Air ministry adopted this model and its construction started. The model went into production, as the aircraft was in use over the years the design continuously improved beginning with the Mark I to Mark XIV, until the Spitfire went out of production (Axelrod & Kingston 2007).Wing DesignThe plane used a semi-elliptical wing, which helped to reduce drag, house a retractable undercarriage while at the same time carried armament and ammunition. The ellipse-shaped and skewed wings ensured that the centre of the pressure aligned with the main spur and which prevented the wings fro twisting.

As the aircraft performance Improve and it gained more power, the aileron reversal increased. It meant that there was a need for the design of new wings. The new models helped solve this problem by increasing their stiffness by 47% and the aileron reversals speed improved by the use of geared trim tabs and piano hinges. These improvements enabled the aircrafts work in optimum conditions until they were retired; they also enabled them to accommodate 303 machine guns and a Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannon.

Figure one, Elliptical shaped wing (Morgan and Shacklady 2000, p. 171).Engine DesignThe Spitfire over the years used the Rolls-Royce Griffon engines. The first engine used was the steam cooled Rolls-Royce engine, used in the first model 224, and it could only manage 230mph at a target speed of 250mph. The more powerful Rolls-Royce PV-XII V-12 engine nicknamed the Merlin, used in the model 300 Mark I followed. The next most significant version of the Spitfire was the Mark V, powered by the Merlin 45 and 46 engines.

It was capable of producing 1470hp at 16,00ft and move at a speed of between 369mph and 374mph. Experiments of new Rolls-Royce engines continued and the first Spitfires to get this new Mark XII engines. The Mark XIV followed with 2050hp powered by a Griffon 65; it had a maximum speed of 44mph at 30,000ft. It was the last of Spitfires and the aviation industry focused on the future with designing jet-engine fighters (OHara 2009).ReferencesAxelrod, A., & Kingston, J. A., 2007. Encyclopedia of Word War II.

New York: Facts on File.Morgan, Eric B., and Edward Shacklady., 2000. Spitfire: The History (5th rev. edn.). London: Key Publishing. ISBN 0-946219-48-6.OHara, V. P., 2009. Struggle for the Middle Sea: The great navies at war in the Mediterranean theater, 1940-1945. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press.Zandvoort, R. W., 1957. Wartime English: Materials for a linguistic history of World War II. New York: G. Lounz.