had contracted to deliver the first Spitfire in September 1937, but by early 1938 a single plane had still not left the factory. Upon receipt of the order Supermarine commenced fitting out its Woolston Works for production of the new fighter. With the orders for the Spitfire as well as for the Stranraer and Walrus the company a new factory to the designs of the noted 1930's modernist architect, Oliver Percy Bernard and known as the Itchen Works was built on land reclaimed from the River Itchen just upstream from the Woolston Works. Opened in 1939, it was originally intended that it would be used to build the Walrus and Sea Otter, but because of its importance it was soon being used to construct Spitfire fuselages. In 1938 with Walrus production having peaked the previous year the facility at Hythe was closed. While it was intended that outside sub-contractors would be employed in manufacturing many major components, Vickers-Armstrongs was initially reluctant to see companies from outside of the group involved and so was slow in releasing the necessary sub-components and drawings. As delays mounted the Air Ministry proposed that Supermarine would only complete the initial order and then once the Hawker Typhoon was ready for service in 1941 switch over to making Bristol Beaufighters. Supermarine was able to convince the Air Ministry that the problems would be overcome, which allayed the concerns sufficient for them to receive another order for 200 Spitfires on 24 March 1938. Supermarine was to subsequently organise over 200 sub-contractors to produce components for the Spitfire, with 27 of them producing fully assembled major components, four building the main section of the wing, four building wing tips and another five building flaps. The major components were then taken on trucks to Eastleigh Airport where fitting of the engines, final assembly and flight testing was undertaken before being distributed to operational RAF bases. Due to the production delays, the first RAF unit, 19 Squadron at Duxford, didn't start receiving Spitfire Mk Is until 4 August 1938. Even then, production was slow to build up, and only 49 Spitfires had reached the RAF by 1 January 1939. By 3 September 1939 a total of 306 Spitfire Mk Is had been delivered to the RAF. Castle Bromwich Aware of the desperate shortage of modern aircraft, the lack of manufacturing capacity and that as the majority of aircraft manufacturers were