John Cantelo
Well-known member
Even worse the Supermarine factory was about 1.5 miles from where I was born and about 2.5 from where I live. It's not that I don't like the Spitfire, I just prefer the P51 (and the F4) - perhaps it was an Airfix thing!
A Sholing mush by birth I was born 1.5 miles from the Supermarine works (as the Spitfire flies, about 2 miles by road), but ended my residence in Southampton living about 600 yards from the place. Both parents were born within 0.5 miles of the works. Oddly though despite most of my family coming from Woolston (where the works stand) and my father serving in the RAF none of them worked at the place - pretty much all of them working in the shipyards.
Aesthetically no fighter of WWII (or ever?) gets close to the Spitfire, but, although it's hard for me to admit it, the P51 was the better fighter although only when fitted with a Merlin engine.