Reginald Joseph Mitchell manifested an early interest in his life's work when, while still in high school, he designed and built model airplanes without benefit of plans or instructions. His vivid imagination, flair for the artistic, and his excellence in mathematics were honed in these formative years. In 1916, after a 5-year apprenticeship with a locomotive works, Mitchell joined Supermarine Aviation Works Limited in Southampton. He was promoted to chief designer and chief engineer at the age of 25. After World War I, Supermarine returned to the manufacture of commercial flying boats, but also set for itself the goal of winning the Schneider trophy for Britain. In succeeding years, Mitchell's design team produced consistent winners, culminating in the beautiful S.6B which retired the trophy outright in 1931 and set a world speed record of 407.5 miles per hour. Subsequently, Mitchell and Supermarine returned to the production of flying boats. Two of these, the Walrus and the Stranraer, became the backbone of the Royal Air Force's air-sea rescue and maritime reconnaissance services. In the years from 1920 to 1936 he designed no less than twenty-four different aircraft. Without question, Mitchell's crowning achievement was the marriage of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and his most aesthetically elegant airframe, the Spitfire, one of World War II's deadliest fighter aircraft.
Inducted in 1986.
Portrait Location: World War II Gallery