Spitfire Trivia

[PRB]

The first flight of the Spitfire (flown by "Mutt" Summers) took place on what day..? Yes, it's (potentially) a trick question, but maybe not so much to this crowd...

[lefty]

OK, the trick presumably is that the recognised first flight by Summers, on 05/03/36 (British dating) was in the Type 300, or F7/30. The Spitfire name was not approved until 10th June, after which it was piloted by several people including Quill and Edwardes-Jones.

So I'm not really sure what the correct answer to your question really is !

[PRB]

Interesting. That really would make it a trick question! I'm reading Quill's book “Spitfire, A Test Pilot's Story”, and of the first flight he writes:

“... On 6 March I flew the Falcon from Brooklands to Martlesham to take Mutt Summers from there to Eastleigh. Popular folklore has it that the first flight of the Spitfire took place on 5 March 1936, but I flew Mutt to Eastleigh for the particular purpose of making that first flight on 6 March....”

So I Googled and looked in a another Spitfire book I have and everyone seems to agree on 5 March. Except for Quill. Maybe Quill made a type-o in his diary!