The airplane that did the most to turn the tide of the war.

[PAT303]

The initial contract for Supermarine was for 310 dated 3 June 1936. The first Hurricane order was also in 1936 and was for only 600 aircraft. That was way back at the start of the rearmament programmes when war, if it happened at all, still seemed to be in the distant future.

And with the pace of aircraft development being what it was in the 1930s, how many do you order in 1936.The Spec for a successor to the Hurricane & Spitfire, F.18/37 to meet a requirement for a 400+mph fighter was issued in March 1938, just 5 months before the Spitfire first entered service with 19 squadron. While the competition was won by Hawker, who had already been working on a successor for some time that lead eventually to the Typhoon, submissions were also made by Supermarine, Gloster, Fairey & Bristol.

In 1936 war seemed a long way off. Planners in many nations were looking to 1942 or even 1944. It was only in summer of 1938 with the Munich crisis, that war suddenly seemed much closer.

Issuing an order for fast monoplane fighters in 1936 and then a 400mph aircraft in 1938 I can't help but feel a few people had an inclining that war was not far off, even more so considering biplane fighters were still in front line service for many nations, it's also more than a coincidence that eight MG's were specified solely to increase the round count for a 2 second burst, the maximum time thought possible because of the speeds involved, same for heavier cannon armament trials in the mid 1930's aimed at bomber destruction. Anyway that's why I still put the Spit and Hurri equal first, the war had a long time to run but winning the BoB was the start line for final victory.

 

[WARSPITER]

Dowding must be remembered for championing the two fighters as well. He could see that bombers were going
to be vulnerable to single engine planes with multiple guns when the majority thought that the bomber would
always get through.

 

[GrauGeist]

The Paris Air Show of 1936 & 1938 was a good indicator of things to come