The men and women who made the Spitfire the aviation icon

摘要

Of all of the seemingly endless profusion of books, magazine articles, films and other modern media forms about the nation-saving Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire itself, the timely appearance of this volume - straddling the 80th anniversaries of the first flight of the prototype on 5 March 1936 and the untimely death of its renowned creator, Reginald Mitchell, only 15 months later on 11 June 1937 at the age of only 42, and never having seen it enter operational service - is the long-awaited missing link in the Spitfire chronicle. As such, it is a comprehensive, authentic and contextual compilation of the personal profiles and collective contributions of the great designers, industry leaders, politicians, producers, operational commanders, men and women pilots and the many other unsung supporters who so expeditiously brought the Spitfire into exceptionally large-scale production and the service of the nation in so many forms and operational theatres of WW2.