Jeffrey Quill FRAeS masterminded the development and production test flying of all 52 variants of the Spitfire and, in this lecture from 1984, describes the evolution of the Spitfire and its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in all their marks from the Schneider Trophy aircraft of the 1930s onwards. Quill goes onto describe how the war shaped the development of the Spitfire marks and how they met the challenge.

Edited for podcast by Mike Stanberry FRAeS, the digitisation of the recording was funded through the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.