In the Spitfire Mk I Cockpit

Today we're stood here with the Imperial War Museum's Spitfire Mark 1 N3200. It's the only airworthy aircraft in the museum's  collection and is a very special aircraft to us. The prototype Spitfire first flew in March 1936 and the first operational examples arrived here at RAF Duxford in August 1938. Those examples were Mk 1, exactly as the aircraft we've got here, which was an example of the RAF's monoplane 8-gun single-seat single-engine fighter. And today we'll be taking a look inside the cockpit of our combat veteran Mk I.

The history of this aeroplane is a very important one, but it also links quite nicely to the history of the Spitfire in general. The Spitfire first came into operational service here at RAF Duxford on the 4th August 1938 when number 19 squadron accepted the first operational examples. Our Spitfire was not one of those original  examples but does go on to serve with 19 squadron when it arrives here in April 1940. It carries the codes QV which are the wartime codes of number 19 squadron.

This particular spitfire was the 414th production Spitfire. A huge number of Spitfires are produced after this one but this is a very early original Mk I before the addition of increased engines or armament that the war would progress.

Newsreel: "Let us look at the inside of a pilot's cockpit with its massive instruments, and then think of the hours of practice needed before the pilot can understand all their uses and employ them satisfactorily. See the pilot in his kit. It is bad enough to be in a flying overall, but look at this the life belt used when flying over the sea. It is called a Mae West, rather unkindly. Now the parachute. It is impossible to look pompous in a parachute."

So we're now sitting inside the cockpit of the Imperial War Museum's Spitfire Mk1 N3200. It is a fully airworthy aircraft and it is finished exactly as it would have appeared in the early summer of 1940 when it was unfortunately lost in the area near Dunkirk on the 26th May 1940.

To make an airworthy aircraft these days, especially one of the vintage of this Spitfire, lots of things have to be taken into consideration to make sure that it is safe, but they do where possible try to stick to originality. The dials that we're looking at in here although not necessarily from this spitfire or indeed a spitfire at all. They are of the correct type and during the Second World War the majority of these dials would have looked very familiar to any British pilot flying any British aircraft. So the originality in here is key but also the consideration is safety. These aircraft do fly, they have to be safe for the pilots who fly them and those on the ground watching them.

The Spitfire was a leap forwards in technology within the RAF. It was replacing biplane aircraft with fixed undercarriage so a lot of things had to be taken into consideration by the pilots learning to fly these new fast fighters.

A typical Spitfire startup would see a lot of action going on inside the cockpit. In the traditional idea of a Battle of Britain scramble of course the ground crew would have started it up before the pilot climbed in. But if you were to start the aircraft, you'd be looking at setting the throttle over on the left-hand side, the magnetos and the starting magneto, as well as priming the engine with the ki gass primer. You'd make sure that the fuel was turned on and then you would click down the button there and you would fire the engine. Once the engine is running the temperatures and pressures start to come up on the dials over on the right hand side and things start to get quite hot in the engine very quickly. In the early Second World War period when Spitfires were operating from Duxford they would have had a nice big grass airfield to use. They'd have pointed into wind and they'd have aimed to get into the air as quickly as they possibly could before the engine overheated. Once they were in the air, the pilot's hand would be on the left hand side on the throttle and on the normally their right hand would be on the control column here.

Newsreel: "Now the take off. Throttle right forward, stick central. Ease her off the ground, back with the throttle to normal boost. And now up with the wheels."

Once they've taken off and they're into a relatively safe climbing attitude they would have to reduce the speed by reducing the throttle and they also would then have to think about bringing up the undercarriage. No easy task in this particular mark of Spitfire. The pilot would have to move his left hand from the throttle across to the control column and then his right hand would have to go down to the right hand side of the seat. They would select undercarriage up. Now on our particular Spitfire it is still equipped with something that all of the very early Mk 1 Spitfires were equipped with and that is a hand pumped undercarriage. There is no easy switch on here that will bring the undercarriage up; he has to pump this big black handle. Now it was often said that very early Spitfire pilots having to undertake this would have been seen to porpoise as they took off because their left hand on the stick and their right hand on the pump would have caused the aircraft to bounce as it got airborne.

Interviewer: "What did you think to the Spitfire as a machine to fly?"

Roger Hall: "Well it was marvellous, the Spitfire I, this was Mk I. Well coming off the Miles Master on which we're trained, it was absolutely marvellous, and it took a lot more punishment than Miles Master. And it was very, very sensitive to a fly. You had no trouble about exerting a lot of pressure. If you got into difficulties, I mean if the thing stalled and span, and if it took a hands and feet off everything, it was come out on its own accord. It was very stable aircraft and really it had no vices at all.

So the pilots flying the Spitfire were gaining something that their predecessors didn't have. They had a nice closing cockpit which kept out some of the conditions the wind and some of the temperature. There was a small element of heating in the cockpit but it would have been pretty cold up there hence the need for a large over jacket, such as the fur lined Irving.

The pilot would have also worn a leather flying helmet as a helmet, it's not going to give you much protection but it carries some important items. It carries the earphones so that you can hear radio telegraph communications and there is the plug which connects you to the aircraft. On the front of the flying helmet as well you would connect your oxygen mask which would have your microphone.

Once you've got all of your kit on inside the aeroplane you'd be relatively snug but even still inside this aircraft it would be incredibly noisy, both from the engine in front, potentially the guns firing on the outside, and just the air conditions around you.

Cyril Bamberger: "The idea from your earlier training was to sort of make a three-point landing. You didn't always succeed but a little like the older biplanes, if you just landed on your wheels, that's the front wheels, and you hadn't lost sufficient airspeed you could bounce in the air again, so the idea was to try and do it almost at three-point landing. Then you would taxi around and do another take off and landing using all these new high-tech gadgets such around the undercarriage and flaps etc, but you soon got used to it."

So the pilot sitting inside the Spitfire after having taken off brought the undercarriage up goes through a number of checks. They're going to look at the dials in front of them to make sure that everything is looking good, fuel pressure, oil pressure, temperatures, you don't want your aircraft to be overheating before you go into combat. Once the pilot is then satisfied with that they're going to do a number of things, they're going to trim the aircraft so it can fly relatively straight and level, hands off. And then most pilots would unlock the hood, slide it back, to make sure that in the event of an emergency there were no obstructions. They would also lower their seats slightly; that gave them a sense of comfort but it gave them a bit of protection from the armour plate behind them and to an extent the engine in front as well. They would then turn on the reflector gun sight, the switch is just up here, and the reflector gun sight is what they're going to be using to aim at the enemy aircraft. And likely the last thing they're going to do is to turn the gun button from safe to fire.

Newsreel: "While the leader searches the sky in front for the enemy, it is bitterly cold and the curious  
depression and feeling of isolation that comes when flying at great height would insensibly affect the pilot's fighting qualities if he were not helped by his oxygen supply. Suddenly the leader who has been keeping up a two-way conversation with the ground control which is directing him onto the enemy cites sights something. Tally ho, there they are: Jerries!" 

Our Spitfire is equipped with a rear view mirror. Review mirrors were not standard on early mark Spitfires, that came in much later on and in fact this particular Spitfire's mirror would have come from a civilian car, possibly somewhere on the base at Duxford. The fairing around it gives it an element of streamlining and today in flight that fairing causes our Spitfire to whistle.

Cyril Bamerger: "The Spitfire was nothing like I'd flown like it before and oddly enough I've never flown anything like it since. It was a wonderful aircraft to fly. I mean and you were part of the aircraft. Some aircraft you sit in them and you fly them. Well after not a lot of experience of a Spitfire, you became part of the aircraft and you felt you could do anything in it."

So we have just seen inside the cockpit of our Spitfire mark I. The Spitfire goes on to be evolved into numerous marks throughout its production life, culminating in over 22 and a half thousand Spitfires and Seafires of all variants being built. But it's very important and we are very lucky to have in our collection such an early version of the Spitfire, one most associated with victory during the Battle of Britain, and really to have one in the early mark I guise and from there we can see the lineage of the Spitfire develop.

So we've seen inside the cockpit today; if you would also like to experience the same opportunity of sitting inside the pilot seat of our airworthy combat veteran mark I, take a look on our website and come down to Duxford for your own experience.