The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used into the 1950s both as a front line fighter and in secondary roles. It was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft and was the only Allied fighter in production throughout the war.[5]

The Spitfire was designed as a short-range high-performance interceptor aircraft[6] by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works (since 1928 a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs). He continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith became chief designer.[7] The Spitfire’s elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than the Hawker Hurricane and several contemporary fighters.[8] Speed was seen as essential to carry out the mission of home defence against enemy bombers.[6]

During the Battle of Britain there was a public perception that the Spitfire was the RAF fighter of the battle; in fact the more numerous Hurricane actually shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against the Luftwaffe.[9]

After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire became the backbone of RAF Fighter Command and saw action in the European Theatre, Pacific Theatre and the South-East Asian Theatre. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service in several roles, including interceptor, photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, carrier-based fighter, and trainer; it was built in many different variants, with two different types of engine and several wing configurations.

(data from Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire)