Supermarine Spitfire

The Supermarine Spitfire is Britain’s most celebrated fighter aircraft, remembered above all for the Battle of Britain in 1940. Designed by R. J. Mitchell, it combined a refined elliptical wing with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, giving it a blend of speed, climb and handling that pilots admired.

Its story did not end in 1940. The Spitfire evolved through many marks, engines and roles, serving as an interceptor, fighter-bomber, reconnaissance aircraft and naval Seafire derivative. Its graceful shape has become shorthand for wartime British resilience, but beneath the symbolism was a design that kept improving throughout the war.