This 20p stamp from June 1997 shows the British aircraft designer Reginald Mitchell, and his most famous creation, the Supermarine Spitfire (the example shown is a MkIIA).

The Spitfire remains undoubtedly the most famous fighter plane of World War 2. Mitchell – who died in 1937 - actually disliked the Spitfire name, calling it "bloody silly". The now-legendary name was actually chosen by Sir Robert MacLean, the head of Vickers Aviation, which had owned Supermarine since 1928.

Nevertheless, the design Mitchell had started was developed in wartime to the peak of propeller plane technology. The Spitfire pilots loved flying the machine, largely due to its elliptical wings and their ability to cope with a stall and spin, allowing pilots to fly the machine at the edge of its abilities.

The speed of the Spitfire was also impressive, some 600 miles per hour in testing. Pilot Jeffrey Quill wrote: "That any operational aircraft off the production line, cannons sprouting from its wings and warts and all, could readily be controlled at this speed when the early jet aircraft such as Meteors, Vampires, P-80s, etc could not, was certainly extraordinary."

The stamp set of British Aircraft Designers also featured Roy Chadwick and his Avro Lancaster MkI, Ronald Bishop and the De Havilland Mosquito B MkXVI, George Carter and Gloster Meteor T Mk7, and Sir Sidney Camm and Hawker Hunter FGA Mk9. The stamps all feature a view of the aeroplane, with the face of the designer picked out in cloud shapes behind. The stamps were designed by Turner Duckworth.

Illustration

R. Mitchell's Supermarine Spitfire