Britain Outplanned Nazi Air Builders

Northern Advocate, 25 October 1941, Page 6

Britain Outplanned Nazi Air Builders

[British Official Wireless] (Rec. 1 p.m.) RUGBY, October 24. How British design and forethought proved a match for German mass planning and ruthlessness has been described by the Air Ministry in an account of the origins of the eight-gun Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, the famous aircraft which routed the Luftwaffe in daylight attacks on England a year ago. A Crisis Met That Britain possessed, at such a crucial moment, fighters of such performance that small numbers were able to establish superiority over anything the enemy could send over, was due to the men who foresaw in the developments of modern bombers the need for fighters of superlative quality as defensive weapons. In considering the eventual replacement of the “Fury” and the “Bulldog,” a fighter with eight guns was first proposed by the late Wing Commander A. T. Williams, in April, 1933. The later advent of the monoplane enabled the new proposal to be adopted with less adverse effect on flying performance. Revolutionary Design The new plane was drawn up by Squadron-Leader R. S. Sorley in 1935, and then British engineers produced a first-class liquid cooled engine, the Rolls Royce Merlin 11, which gave the designers of the Spitfire and Hurricane that performance of power and shape which enabled them to produce the first aircraft which would not only fire eight instead of four guns, but would also exceed 300 miles per hour and climb higher than operational aircraft had done before. If this revolutionary change of policy had not been made, Britain would have been found with fighters insufficiently armed to deal with the German bomber put into production soon after Hitler came to power. Quality Tells A further indication of the superiority of the quality to quantity was the fact that British planes were back into the air time after time each day. Squadron-Leader Sorley, now an Air Vice-Marshal, aged 43, is Assistant Chief of Air Staff, charged with the special consideration of operational requirements and tactics. The decisions cf today for the fighting requirements of tomorrow remain his province.

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