Hixon History Society

In October, Julian Mitchell gave an insight of his great Uncle R.J.Mitchell CBE. Mitchell was born in Talke in 1895, and was only 5 when he became interested in flying after learning of the first manned flight by The Wright Brothers in America. He left school at 16 following his father into engineering with Kerr Stuart and Co, in Fenton, Stoke on Trent. In 1916, Mitchell joined the Supermarine Aviation Works at Southampton, which specialised in building flying boats. He quickly attained recognition for his creative thinking and was made assistant engineer in 1921. By 1922 the firm had 32 orders from all over the world. At that time, with 70% of the world covered by water, there were very few land ports, so flying boats was the solution. But Mitchell, who was now Chief Engineer, changed the concept of ‘boats that fly’ and designed ‘planes that float’. During this time (1912 - 1931) Jacques Schneider, a French financier initiated a bi-annual flying race in order to advance aerodynamics and engine design. It was a 150 mile triangular course, with private companies from Italy, France, Britain and latterly the USA taking part. Speeds increased from 46mph in the early days to 380mph in 1931 when the last race was won by the Supermarine S6b with a Rolls Royce engine. Supermarine had been bought out in 1928 by Vickers-Armstrong and in 1933, with the growing threat of Germany, the Government needed fighter planes and the Supermarine Spitfire was born. It was a short range, high-performance interceptor aircraft with a modified elliptical wing providing high maneuverability and altitude. Very few German fighter planes were shot down by any other plane! R J Mitchell died in 1937 from cancer. He was a hero before anyone knew how much would be owed to his talent and dedication. 

HIXON HISTORY SOCIETY FOOTNOTE 

At our last meeting a visitor brought along part of a turbo charger which was excavated by a specialist team from his brother-in-law’s farmland in 1985. It was buried 26 feet down in Staffordshire clay. The part and was believed to have come from a Hurricane. But after many years of research, our visitor discovered that it was actually from an American Thunderbolt fighter which had crashed at Whitgreave in 1944. He is now trying to find the pilot’s relatives.

On November 3rd will learn about Staffordshire railways and the topic for our December 1st meeting will be The Magic of Pantomimes.

All the meetings are at Hixon Memorial Hall and start at 8-00pm. 

The fee is £2-00 per person. All welcome. 

John Egginton