Vickers Supermarine at Chilbolton Airfield

Left to Right

Jeffrey Quill, Joe Smith (Chief Designer of Supermarine), Mike Lithgow,

S P Woodley (Superintendent of Supermarine Works), Les Colquhoun,

Dave Morgan, ‘Chunky’ Horne, ‘Pee Wee’ Judge

The two main problems with flying ‘faster than sound’ were controlling the aircraft and preventing structural failure when the enormous forces of speeds in excess of 600 mph were reached. For aircraft designers, powered controls were under urgent development. For flight test observers, there were none of the sophisticated electronic measuring devices we have today. For test pilots, the ejector seat was rudimentary and safety relied on the parachute operating quickly and effectively. For all three, there was the problem of getting a consistent set of test results. There was often no alternative to conducting high speed tests ‘off the ground’; accidents were bound to happen and a surprisingly high number of test pilots sacrificed their lives.

Charles Burnet

“Behind the pilots are the aircraft designers, the immortal RJ Mitchell who gave us the Spitfire, Sir Sydney Camm of Hawker, RE Bishop of De Havilland and Roy Chadwick of Avro, to name only a few. Again I can quote a great man in this field whose name should have been a household word but never was. It was the lot of Joe Smith of Supermarine to follow a man who was probably the greatest of them all. RJ Mitchell had put British aviation on the map with his Schneider Trophy winning aircraft and then his final masterpiece, the Spitfire. Joe Smith took over the reins as World War II burst upon us, and he perpetuated this great aircraft through an astonishing number of variants, before bringing out on his own account such jets as the Attacker, the Swift and Scimitar. I only wish more people knew what a debt this country owed him.”