On this day in aviation history, March 5, 1936, the legendary Supermarine Spitfire took to the skies for the first time. The Spitfire quickly became one of the most iconic aircraft of all time ...

The 80th anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire has been marked with a re-enactment along the original flightpath taken by the aircraft.

A Supermarine Spitfire Mk. 1 in flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome, 1938. The Royal Air Force’s first operational Spitfires arrived at the 19th Squadron’s airfield at Duxford on August 4, 1938.

The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works (which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers ...

Flight Lieutenant Robert Stanford Tuck of the Royal Air Force was closing in on his quarry. ... The Supermarine Spitfire endures today as one of the legendary fighter planes of World War II.

Watch and listen to BBC clips about the Supermarine Spitfire. ... Photo: A Spitfire in flight, circa 1939. (Photo by Roger Viollet/Getty Images) Features in: The Battle of Britain.