ArtKramr wrote:

Subject: More long-range Spitfires and daylight Bomber Command raids,
with
From: Guy Alcala

he also says that Mitchell wanted to stick with the tailskid, but the
Air Ministry insisted on the tailwheel, because they knew (but couldn't tell
Mitchell at the time, because it was classified) that they were going to lay
down
all-weather (i.e. paved) runways at all the fighter bases, and the tail skid
wouldn't last long under those conditions. This thing's just filled with
great
info.

Guy


It seems as though the Air Ministry didn't entirely trust Mitchell. Imagine
being an aircraft designer and having th air ministry withhold info that would
impact on your designs. The mind boggles.

It wasn't a case of trust, just a case of need to know. Mitchell only needed to
know that a tailwheel was a firm requirement, not the rationale behind it, to
design one. I imagine the spec change to increase the armament from 4 to 6 or 8 x
..303s was handled the same way -- they told him what they wanted and asked him if
it could be done, but probably not the reasoning behind it. Whether the tailwheel
case was an example of the government being classification happy is another
matter; the Brits tended to be (and still are, to a great extent) a lot more
reluctant about releasing such details, even when they're apparently innocuous,
than we were/are. OTOH, there were some probably unnecessary security concerns
over Mitchell's technical assistant, S/Ldr H.J. 'Agony' Payn, AFC RAF (ret)
because he'd divorced and his second wife was foreign (maybe German; I forget).
After Mitchell died he was named manager of the Design Department at Supermarine
(not Chief Designer, the post which Mitchell had held). The Air Ministry forced
Supermarine to remove him from work on the Spitfire or anything else classified
because of this, and in fact the company fired him.

Supermarine tried two different designs, a single wheel and one with dual wheels
(side by side). The latter tended to get clogged with mud, so they went with the
single.

Guy