The Spitfire
Merlin Engine
The Spitfire's was fitted with a piston engine made by Rolls-Royce called the Merlin – widely thought to be the greatest ever conceived. It was replaced in 1942 by the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine.
Commemoration Ale
For four months during 1940 the skies over Kent witnessed the Battle of Britain. To honour the Spitfire, Shepherd Neame's Spitfire Premium Ale was first brewed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battle in 1990, and raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund.
World War Two
'(There`ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover' by Vera Lynn is one of the most famous of all the World War II era pop classics. It became a sensational hit in 1942, as it reflected the feelings of all the Allies towards the British people in their fight against Hitler.
Airfix Models
When Henry VIII commissioned Holbein’s portrait in order to try and define how he would be seen, and remembered, he surely couldn’t have imagined that four centuries after his death the Airfix model company would be marketing a seven-inch Henry VIII model, in easy pieces for you to assemble at home… Airfix is rather better known as the maker of models of the Spitfire.
Engine blueprints
Winston Churchill considered the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine used in Spitfires such an indispensible part of Britain's air defences that in 1940, he ordered a set of blueprints to be sent to the US in case the UK was invaded by Nazi Germany.
