This article, now revised and updated, provides a complete photo reference to the layout and operation of the Spitfire cockpit.
The aircraft serving as our subject is Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vb BL628 YO-D, recently completed by Avspecs Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand. Due to the fantastic quality of the restoration work which took full 30 years, the cockpit of this Spitfire conforms almost entirely to wartime production standards. For this reason, the following photographs can serve as reliable reference to the cockpit layout of the production Spitfire Mk. V.
Click to enlarge images
Many thanks for a wonderful accompaniment to Geoffrey Wellum’s book, First Flight, which I just discovered on Amazon/US and am now reading.
Absolutely superb….thank you
I was especially impressed with issue #3 about the Spitfire. If the quality holds up, it will be a great series of aircraft miscellany.
[...] Anatomy of the Spitfire's Cockpit — Variants & Technology … Jul 5, 2010 … For this reason, the following photographs can serve as reliable reference to the cockpit layout of … [...]
In one of the superb pictures of the NZ Spitfire MkV featured above, the small silver button situated below the rear view mirror is shown. The late great Niel Williams told a very amusing story many years ago, when he was offered the chance to fly Adrian Swires (I think it was Adrian Swire, if memory serves) Spitfire, the well known MkIX, MH434. Niel was already a very accomplished aerobatic and air show pilot, so it appears Adrian Swire basically said “there she is, off you go!” (yes things were done that way in an earlier less legislated age!) He tells of after having pre flighted the aircraft, there he was, standing on the wing of a fully fuelled, ready to go Spitfire, but could not open the canopy! After an agonisingly long and embarrassing search (no doubt a crowd of interested onlookers had gathered at this stage to watch the start), he finally figured out it was this tiny non descript little button with no labelling, that thankfully opened Aladdins Cave!! One wonders if he were watching, had Adrian Swire started to have second thoughts about the safety of his historic aircraft!!