Supermarine Spitfire Elliptic Wing

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

The Supermarine Spitfire is a famous WWII fighter aircraft mostly known by its contribution to the Battle of Britain. The most salient recognizable feature of the Spitfire is its elegant elliptical wings. This study deals with the Spitfire elliptic wing shape.

I would have placed a reference list, however this study has not been compiled either as a defending dissertation, nor was it intended for ‘peer review’. It was rather intended for the specialist such as an aircraft engineer or draughtsman (a modern view of what the wing should have looked like), aircraft restoration and replica or model builder enthusiasts that would find this study particularly useful. It might not be readily apparent that apart from living testimonies and a rather skimpy document trial (see "The Spitfire: Legend or History? - An Argument for a New Research Culture in Design" - by KENNETH AGNEW), the only other tangible references available are Supermarine factory drawings, and of course, the aircraft itself.
Every Spitfire enthusiast would have the spitfire ‘bible’, “Spitfire at War” by Alfred Price. Some of his other books are excellent references: “The Spitfire Story”, The Legendary Spitfire Mk 1/II 1939-41” and “Spitfire a Complete Fighting History”. “Spitfire Mk. IX & XVI Engineered” is an excellent and impressive work by Paul H. Monforton (I did not have this book with all the tables when I did this study). Other books in my possession are: “Spitfire the Legend Lives on” by Geoffrey Wellum, “Spitfire a Photographic Biobraphy” by Dilip Sarkar. Articles like “The Aerodynamics of the Spitfire” and “The Spitfire Wing Planform: A Suggestion “ by J. A. D. Ackroyd may also be referred to. An article entitled “The Spitfire Wing – elliptical and thin” at http://johnkshelton.blogspot.co.za/2013/04/the-spitfire-wing-elliptical-and-thin.html is amongst other useful references.

I am in possession of some 3000 factory blueprints, of some 50000 documents that I believe are available at Hendon museum. The Johannesburg Military Museum curator was very kind in allowing me to scan the MK VIII Spitfire on display. Lloyd & Hill Surveyors from Cape Town did the laser scanning and I have the whole machine in point cloud. This may come handy as not all drawings survived bombings of the factory in Bromwich.

Also see a 3D model driven by parametric equations here:
https://grabcad.com/library/spitfire-wing-with-a-true-elliptic-planform-1