Spitfire engineer visits San Diego Air & Space Museum

Of particular interest to Lawrence Warden of Clairemont was the Museum's Spitfire, a plane he helped modify during World War II.

During its time, the Spitfire was one of the best known fighter aircraft in the world.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum received a special visitor on March 9, 2016 when 95-year-old Lawrence Warden of Clairemont toured the Museum.

Of particular interest to Mr. Warden was the Museum’s Supermarine SpitfireMk.XVI. As a 17-year-old in England, he served as a junior engineer and helped modify a section of the Spitfire. In its prime, the Spitfire was possibly one the best known fighter aircraft in the world because of its critical role in defending England during World War II’s famous Battle of Britain.

Looking back on it now, Mr. Warden’s work on the Spitfire occurred almost by happenstance.

“I was taken on in 1938 as a student apprentice at Blackburn Aircraft, and the way they did it in those days, you were chosen for an interview, and if you looked like a useful person and had brains, I suppose, you could become a junior engineer,” explained Mr. Warden.

Being a junior engineer was far from easy.

“We had to go to college at night time and Saturdays, and during the daytime of course we worked in the drawing office, although to start off you had to do two years in the works in the different departments,” continued Mr. Warden. “You learned how to do this and that and sheet metal work, turning a lathe, and moved into another department and learned another skill. Eventually when they thought you were good enough, you moved into the drawing office, and that’s how we got there.”

Did he know at the time he was working on such an important aircraft?

“You tended whatever aircraft you were put on,” noted Mr. Warden. “Like at Blackburn Aircraft, we were doing a naval fighter called the Firebrand. It was a great big hulking thing, but we thought it was a marvelous airplane. We thought it was a world beater, but it really wasn’t. It was a bit of a dog. We knew the Spitfire wasn’t a dog because we followed it for two years fighting the Germans, and of course the poor Spitfires got shot down as well, and lots of them. That’s the way it was.”

Specifically, Mr. Warden's job was to design the aerodynamic covers for large cannons in the wings. Originally, Spitfires were armed with eight machine guns, firing rifle caliber bullets. As the war progressed, the need for heavier weapons became apparent and the smooth lines of the Spitfire's classic elliptical wings had to be altered to house powerful cannons. Mr. Warden was called upon to come up with these covers, to make the cannons easy to access for reloading, but not "draggy" in terms of causing reduced airspeed. His design was efficient and well recieved, and all further Marks of the Spitfire carried his modifications. 

Mr. Warden’s stint as a junior engineer on the Spitfire was the beginning of a remarkable career in the aircraft industry.

“In 1942 I was transferred from Blackburn Aircraft and went to work in the drawing office in a place called Hursley Park where they had moved all the technical offices into this old country mansion,” said Mr. Warden. “That’s where I finished out and eventually went back to Blackburn Aircraft, but only on loan. They would move you back during the war if we wanted some more people here, a few spare engineers there. ‘Hey you lot, get over there.’ And they didn’t give you any choice, so we went. It was a new experience for us young fellows.”

After the war, he stayed with Blackburn, eventually working on everything from large freight aircraft to supersonic jets.

“I worked on a very big freight aircraft. A four-engine Beverly, they called it,” recalled Mr. Warden. “I had a lot to do with the wing design on that airplane, and positioning the engines. That was always a little difficult, because unfortunately, the designers wanted the engines to be close into the fuselage. As close as you could get, and the propeller was about 6 to 12 inches from the fuselage side.”

Late in his design career he helped design another innovative aircraft.

“The last aircraft I worked on was a really good Navy low-level strike level aircraft called the Blackburn Buccaneer,” said Warden. “And that was a good, good aircraft. We tried to sell it and Germany was interested in buying it. We’re out of the war now. South Africa bought a lot of Buccaneers. That was a darn good aircraft. Carried an atom bomb, of course.

“It had a very interesting bomb bay. The fuselage was round of course but part of it was the bomb bay, and it went around (in a circle) very quickly, about 2 or 3 seconds, and exposed the bomb, which was attached inside. Then of course it dropped the bomb and ‘Whoosh!’ the door would go back and the aircraft was clean again.”

Mr. Warden moved to the San Diego-area in the late 1950s, eventually working for two local aerospace industry giants, Convair and Ryan.

“I worked for Convair in their office for quite a while. That was nice, I liked that. Eventually, things were bad at Convair. They were. They had the 990 and 880 airliners, but they were too late. Boeing had beat them, and so had Douglas. Douglas beat them. So they started to go down and I said, ‘I’m out.’ I then went to Ryan where I finished off the rest of my working life.”

The highlight of Mr. Warden’s visit to the Museum was sitting in the Spitfire’s cockpit, which remarkably, he had never done before.

When asked if he ever thought he would sit in one, he replied, “Oh gosh no. No, that was something that had gone out of my life completely. I could look at one and go, ‘Oh, very pretty.’ But, well, when you’ve been in lots of aircraft, and had a lot to do with a lot of aircraft, I never thought I would get to sit in this one.”

After all these years, it seems only fitting Lawrence Warden would get to sit in one of his greatest creations.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is California’s official air and space museum and education center. The Museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and was the first aero-themed Museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Now showing: Da Vinci: The Ultimate Innovator, a special exhibition showcasing more than 90 robotics, machines and artworks from the greatest inventor of all time. The Museum is located at 2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101. The Museum and gift store are open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with admissions until 4:30 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.