The German thinking behind Spitfire design

SIR – I have very much enjoyed the Telegraph’s recent articles about the Spitfire. One outstanding contributor to the story of this aircraft who rarely gets a mention is Beverley Shenstone.

He was RJ Mitchell’s chief aerodynamicist on the Spitfire project and designed the beautiful elliptical thin wing that made the aircraft such an outstanding fighter.

Shenstone was an unassuming Canadian aeronautical engineer who, intriguingly, actually learnt his postgraduate trade in Germany, working with the great designers Hugo Junkers and Alexander Lippisch.

These men were at the forefront of aircraft design in Europe and taught Shenstone the secrets of high-performance designs and the advantages of elliptical wings.

With the situation in Germany deteriorating, the 24-year-old Shenstone came to England in 1931 and was promptly turned down for a job by Hawker’s Sydney Camm. This was because he disagreed with Camm’s assertion that the next generation of fighter designs would still be biplanes, not monoplanes. (Camm did later go on to design the crucial Hawker Hurricane monoplane fighter.)

Shenstone then went to see RJ Mitchell at Supermarine’s works in Southampton, who decided to give the young man a chance.

SIR – Spitfire production was high, with more than 22,000 built, but it was eclipsed by the Russian IL2 Sturmovik at 44,000 and the German Messerschmitt 109 at 35,000.

Jeff Williams

Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire