Birth of a Legend

Originally published in hardback to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Spitfire's first flight, Birth of a Legend has become the definitive behind-the-scenes account of this aircraft's dramatic and triumphant birth and of its first years of survival and growth.

Using much information unavailable except from MOD records, the aeroplane's chief test pilot, Jeffrey Quill, tells of the almost miraculous efforts made by British engineering to get Mitchells' masterpiece into the air, and keep it there in sufficient quantities from the first to the last days of war.

No other aircraft has ever enjoyed the same charisma nor engendered the same sense of excitement that the Spitfire still evokes in both young and old. How fitting that Jeffrey Quill should tell of the fragile background against which our fighter pilots achieved their legendary triumph.