The Spitfire was to play a key role during the Battle of Britain, helping to defend Britain against the Nazis, during what Churchill called its ‘Darkest Hour’;
Judy Monger (neé Mansbridge), now 84, recalls sitting in the car watching wide-eyed as the brand new Spitfire plane, painted in blue and silver, took off under the control of Captain Joseph “Mutt” Summers for a test flight lasting twenty minutes. Before the plane took off, she remembers the plane’s designer, R.J. Mitchell, leaned into the car and chatted to her father who was, at that time, an aerodynamicist working on the design of the Spitfire. The distinctive roar of the engines and the romance of that first flight encouraged Judy to qualify as a pilot as well as make her career as a flight test analyzer.
At the eightieth anniversary of the inaugural flight, and as part of the Battle of Britain Anniversary celebrations, she had been invited back to the same airport, now named Southampton Airport, to watch a fly-by from the Spitfire. She is the last surviving spectator from that historic first flight. Her recollection of the day is still clear in her mind, She said: “The pilot climbed in the plane, it started with that wonderful sound, and then taxied out. It took off down the runway and up in the air and flew over the railway sheds. It went off for twenty minutes and it came back, flew over, and landed. The pilot climbed out, and father and others went and heard what he had to say. It was superb. It was just like it was today. It started with a spurt from the exhaust and climbed away. It is music, it is a magnificent sound.” That first Spitfire crashed at Farnborough, the day after war was declared in 1939, killing the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Spinner White.Rico says it's his favorite World War Two airplane...
Other Spitfires that took part in the celebration flew from other airfields. Matt Jones, who aptly described the fifty remaining Spitfires as ‘priceless artifacts”, took the controls of the plane that flew from Southampton Airport in honor of the first test flight. Another two Spitfires took off from Biggin Hill near Bromley and flew over Southampton, with the last plane due to fly over Birmingham to pay homage to the factory at Castle Bromwich, in which many Spitfires were manufactured. Unfortunately, that flight had to be cancelled due to poor weather.
Matt Jones piloted his Spitfire along a similar route to that taken by the first plane. He flew along the Hampshire coast, turning at Portsmouth to return along the same route. He took the plane past Woolston, Southampton to the old Supermarine factory where thousands of the Spitfires were built and then past the South Stoneham Cemetery, the final resting place of R.J. Mitchell, the plane’s designer.
Monger attended the celebration with her husband Gordon, now ninety; he was an apprentice at Supermarine at the time the Spitfire was being built there. They watched together as the Spitfire took to the skies, and as the distinctive gurgle of the Merlin engine roared over the airfield she said, “I stood there watching that engine run and I felt my father was stood there next to me being pleased.” Mr. Monger was just as choked up as his wife: “It doesn’t seem real to me after all these years. It still looks as marvelous to me as it did all those years ago.”
The manager of the Southampton Airfield, which hosted the celebration, said: “Who would have thought that, eighty years after the maiden flight from Southampton Airport of Spitfire K5054, this famous aircraft would still be inspiring new businesses and young people. I am sure that R.J. Mitchell, the chief designer, would be very proud that the Spitfire continues to enthrall people today.”
No comments:
Post a Comment