From Nighthawk to Spitfire: The Aircraft of R.J. Mitchell

By John K. Shelton

R. J. Mitchell was virtually self-taught; surprisingly, almost all his other aircraft 24 aircraft were slow-flying seaplanes. How a lad from the land-locked Midlands, apprenticed to a locomotive works, came to be responsible for the Spitfire is a great tale in itself. This detailed book tells us how Mitchell learned his trade--from 1916, contributing to the production of the cumbersome Night Hawk, designed to combat the German Zeppelin threat, and gradually coming to produce record-breaking racing floatplanes which in 1931 won outright the prestigious international Schneider Trophy. Mitchell was thus well placed to design a high speed aircraft when war began to threaten, but Dr. Shelton reveals the production of the famous fighter was by no means a certainty and how, indeed, its vital contribution to winning the Battle of Britain was "a very close run thing."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0750962224
• ISBN13: 9780750962223
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: History Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.1"