User:The Supermariners

the People, the Machine, the Icon


 Overview



 "The Spitfire”  is as much a design icon today as it was when it first flew in 1936. Its vital role in 'The Battle of Britain' merely serving to confirm its place at the very pinnacle of British engineering and design.



However, surprisingly little is known about the people who actually designed and built the plane.



Information is often out of print or buried in academic archives. It is either highly technical or excessively simplified and generalised, writers focusing on the machine rather than how it came into being or developed. The name of Chief Designer, R.J. Mitchell, is almost as ingrained in the British psyche as the aircraft itself, yet he was just one of the many “Supermariners” who designed, tested and built the Spitfire and whose names and roles are largely forgotten.

​

The project aims to look at who those forgotten individuals were and what they experienced, to encourage the collection of more stories of those "who were there" and to present the information in a way that is accessible to all.



It also seeks to investigate what their stories can tell us about the aircraft and what lessons we can learn from them about design today.



David Key

From <https://themakingofthespit.wixsite.com/home