How a pre-war floatplane racing series - saved by a private widow's check - became the crucible that produced the Spitfire and the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
TaildraggerHow fifteen years of Schneider Trophy seaplane racing - and the genius of R.J. Mitchell - directly produced the Supermarine Spitfire that defended Britain in 1940.
TaildraggerR.J. Mitchell designed the Supermarine Spitfire's revolutionary elliptical wing while dying of cancer at 42 - and the aircraft outlived him to define the Battle of Britain.
TaildraggerThe Supermarine Spitfire emerged from racing floatplanes and a dying engineer's final obsession - its elliptical wing and Merlin engine shaping the outcome of the Battle of Britain.
TaildraggerR.J. Mitchell designed the Spitfire's revolutionary elliptical wing before dying of cancer in 1937, never seeing his aircraft save Britain in 1940.
TaildraggerHow R.J. Mitchell's decade of Schneider Trophy racing produced the design language that made the Spitfire Britain's defining fighter of World War II.
TaildraggerThe Schneider Trophy seaplane races of the 1920s and 1930s directly produced the engineering breakthroughs that made the Supermarine Spitfire - and Britain's survival in 1940 - possible.
TaildraggerHow a dying R.J. Mitchell designed the Supermarine Spitfire's elliptical wing and died in 1937, before it saved Britain.
TaildraggerHow the 1931 Schneider Trophy and the Supermarine S.6B forged the wing and engine that became the Spitfire and Merlin.
TaildraggerHow the Schneider Trophy seaplane races and the Supermarine S.6B gave birth to the Spitfire that saved Britain in 1940.
TaildraggerHow the Schneider Trophy seaplane races of the 1920s and 1930s directly produced the Spitfire and its Merlin engine.
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