WOW328 Supermarine Spitfire

Description

The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, using several wing configurations, it was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft. It was also the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the war.

The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works, which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong from 1928. Mitchell pushed the Spitfire’s distinctive elliptical wing designed by Beverley Shenstone to have the thinnest possible cross-section, giving the aircraft a higher top speed than several contemporary fighters, including the Hawker Hurricane. Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as chief designer, overseeing the Spitfire’s development through its multitude of variants.

During the Battle of Britain, from July to October 1940, the public perceived the Spitfire to be the main RAF fighter, though the more numerous Hurricane shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against Nazi Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe. However Spitfire units had a lower attrition rate and a higher victory-to-loss ratio than those flying Hurricanes because of the fighter’s superior performance. During the Battle, Spitfires were generally tasked with engaging Luftwaffe fighters-mainly Messerschmitt Bf 109E series aircraft-which were a close match for them, whereas the Hurricanes were used to engage the slower German bombers.

This variant of the Spitfire was one flown by Ace James ‘Ginger’ Lacey DFM & Bar an RAF pilot with 28 victories to his name. Lacey was the second highest scoring RAF pilot of the war, behind Eric Lock who unlike Lacey did not survive the war. Lacey was one of the few RAF pilots to see active service from the very first day of combat until the last day of combat with the Japanese surrender in 1945.

This 1/30 scale model is limited to 3 in number. Comes with free sample of RAF005 pilot relaxing in deckchair, all other figures from K&C are for scale reference purposes only.