“At first no one believed Edison when he said he'd made an electric bulb. They dismissed it as a filament of his imagination.”
SpitfireIn 1936, the Supermarine Spitfire prototype made its maiden flight from Eastleigh aerodrome (now Southampton Airport), England. Its test-pilot, Capt. Joseph “Mutt” Summers, was reported to be impressed with its performance that his opinion was “Don't touch anything.” The propellor aircraft was designed by Reginald J. Mitchell, using an all-metal monocoque construction, and a high-powered liquid-cooled engine. It could climb to 33,000-ft in about nine minutes, was fast, and easy to manoeuver. Production began at Woolston, turning our the first Spitfires by mid-1938. In WW II, the role of these aircraft in the Battle of Britain (1940) is a high point in Spitfire history. By production end (20 Feb 1948), 12,000 had been built. The RAF kept them in service until 1954. Some privately-owned still remain air-worthy.« |
