The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

committees, too much discussion and too much penny-pinching as Britain
struggled to emerge from the Depression had seen to that. In fact, it was
Neville Chamberlain, then Chancellor, who had pressed hardest for the
build-up of home defence through fighter squadrons and who had argued
that the money should be found through reductions in navy and army
budgets. Incredibly, Ellington suggested this was an unnecessary overreaction.
Fortunately, Chamberlain, as the man controlling the purse-strings,
had insisted on increasing the size of what was then called the Metropolitan
Air Force. It was Chamberlain, more than any other individual, who had
given the green light to expansion of the RAF.
Increased numbers was one thing but they would not add up to a hill of
beans unless they could take on the best the enemy had to offer. The Air
Ministry, in a brief moment of enlightenment, had in 1931 issued
Specification F7/30, calling on aircraft designers to produce a new day and
night fighter to replace the Bristol Bulldog biplane. The remit included a
minimum speed of 195 mph in level flight at 15,000 feet, metal
construction, armament comprising four .303 machine guns, and a service
ceiling of at least 28,000 feet.
Nearly all the British aircraft manufacturers put forward designs,
although it was widely held that Supermarine in Southampton would be the
likely winners. Although they were primarily makers of seaplanes, it was
their sleek, fast monoplane seaplanes that had won three consecutive
Schneider Trophies – victories that ensured the trophy remained in Britain
for evermore.
Yet the Type 224 produced by their chief designer, R. J. Mitchell, had
been a huge disappointment: too slow, with a poor rate of climb, a fixed
undercarriage and wings as thick as trees. Dowding, who had been involved
in the F7/30 order from the outset, was also disappointed with
Supermarine’s effort, but then none of the other designs put forward had
amounted to much either. There was even talk of importing a Polish-built
fighter instead, although eventually the contract was awarded to the Gloster
Gladiator biplane, an aircraft that was serving in France in May 1940 but by
then was quite obsolete.
However, R. J. Mitchell, having recovered from an operation on a first
bout of cancer, had, by the summer of 1934, returned to work on the Type
224. What soon began to emerge were more than mere changes; rather, he
was designing an entirely new aircraft altogether, which he renamed the