One of my biggest loves in this world is the Spitfire fighter aeroplane. A wonder of aviation and an engineering masterpiece, its speed and versatility, (not to mention the brave boys who flew them) were the sole reason why Britain remained in the fight and fought of the foul invasion force throughout the dark days of 1940.<br /><br />Although now old and obsolete, no other aeroplane has as much right or privilege to fly over our green and pleasant land.<br /><br />Here the Spitfire is given top billing in a biopic of it's creator R.J. Mitchell.<br /><br />The great Leslie Howard plays the genius designer, in what was to be his last 'appearance' before the camera. Mitchell was an aircraft designer of noted repute having invented several of the Supermarine seaplanes which secured the Schneider Trophy for Britain throughout the 1920's and 1930's.<br /><br />He was one of the few people in Britain to have heard the snarls and threats of Nazi Germany and was an open campaigner for rearmament, a policy not at all popular with the British Government of the time. Yet despite opposition he fought against not only the bureaucrats but a serious and life-threatening illness to design and build, what has been regarded since as the greatest fighter aircraft of all time, in preparation for a war he knew was coming and a crisis the rest of Britain chose to ignore.<br /><br />David Niven plays Geoffrey Crisp, Mitchells friend and test pilot, who's affable and likable performance is hampered slightly from the fact that his character is completely fictional. Geoffrey Crisp, whoever he was, was never a Schneider trophy winner for Britain.<br /><br />The true facts for anyone interested are that H.C.Biard won the title for us in 1922, followed by S.N.Webster, H.R.D.Waghorn and J.N.Boothman in 1927, 1929 and 1931 respectively, the last three flying Mitchell's Spitfire forerunners the Supermarine S5, S6 and S6B.<br /><br />Also Geoffrey Crisp was not the test pilot of the very first Spitfire. That high honour goes to Joseph 'Mutt' Summers, who took off from Eastliegh airport on 5th March 1936. Summers became the chief test pilot for Vickers and was also the man who dropped the very first life size prototype of the bouncing bomb over Chesil Beach, Weymouth in 1943.<br /><br />This is a great movie, and one which makes all Englishmen grateful and proud, but with all historic based movie stories, there is always something that has been changed, omitted or hushed up, especially in a film made during the war at the height of it's 'keep mum' propaganda battle.<br /><br />Enjoy it like I did, but if there are any R.A.F or aviation buffs out there and would like to know more about the Spitfire and it's history, the glory of the air racing days of the 20's and 30's or just more factual information about the great man himself, then I suggest you visit www.rjmitchell-spitfire.co.uk