Why the Supermarine Spitfire Is Such a Badass Plane

Plus more stories from Pop Mech Pro [View in Browser]( [Image]( [Alternate text] Why the Supermarine Spitfire Is Such a Badass Plane Eighty years ago, the Supermarine Spitfire saved Britain and changed the course of history. By: Alex Hollings After two long months of grueling air combat between invading Luftwaffe fighters and bombers and the notably smaller British Royal Air Force, England’s pilots were exhausted. Some British pilots, many of whom had only nine full hours of flight training before heading up into combat in the hazy English skies, had long since turned to amphetamines to keep them alert. Sometimes, they would fly five or six combat sorties per day before settling in for just a few hours of sleep. The Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940 had taken its toll, but on September 7, 1940, everything changed. Adolf Hitler had given the order to shift focus from military targets to civilian ones—with London being chief among them. The Blitz had begun. More than 300 bombers with accompanying fighter escorts were stacked atop one another more than a mile and a half high. The massive swarm of Nazi aircraft [was said]( to cover 800 square miles of airspace. This is a free preview of Pop Mech Pro. Join now for less than $1 a week to read the rest of the story and more of Popular Mechanics' most in-depth, exclusive features. [JOIN NOW]( HOME [Alternate text] [READ NOW]( Make Your Own Smoker Out of a Whiskey Barrel SPACE [Alternate text] [READ NOW]( How to Photograph a Rocket Launch MILITARY [Alternate text] [READ NOW]( The Burning Question About The Hindenburg Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Notice]( PopularMechanics.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019