Customer Reviews

Supermarine Aircraft Since 1914 (Putnam Aviation Series)

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This is one of the densely written Putnam Aeronautical Books that is a type by type history of Supermarine. Of course the story of that company is widely known in terms of WJ Mitchell, the S6B and the Spitfire. However, as this book makes very clear the work before the Schneider Cup racers was really very tied to very utilitarian operational requirements for marine aircraft that Supermarine met with rather conservative, though well executed designs. Also clear from this is that the the genuis of Supermarine lay as much with Joe Smith as with the prematurley deceased Mitchell. It is well to remember that the last marks of Spitfire had hardly a bolt in common with the Sptifires of the 1930s. Mitchell, unlike Willy Messerschmidt, had created a design that could be grown, but it was Joe Smith who did the growing. The path of Supermarine in the jet age is less inspiring as it joined the long list of British companies that were not sucessful making that transition. Andrews details the specific problems involved but without any general analysis as to why they arose. That is probalby why I didn't give this book five stars but still well worth the read for those with real intest in technical history and aircraft.