Supermarine Type 224
| Type 224 | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Model of the Type 224 on display at the Solent Sky museum | |
| Role | Fighter aircraft |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Supermarine |
| Designer | R. J. Mitchell |
| First flight | 19 February 1934 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Supermarine Type 224 was an inverted gull-wing monoplane fighter aircraft designed by R.J. Mitchell at Supermarine in response to Air Ministry Specification F.7/30, which sought a fighter for introduction to succeed the Gloster Gauntlet. It was powered by the Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine, which used an experimental evaporative cooling system, and problems with this system, combined with its disappointing performance, led to it being rejected, a contract for production aircraft eventually going to the Gloster Gladiator. It is nevertheless notable because R.J. Mitchell learnt lessons from its failure that were to contribute greatly to his success with the Supermarine Spitfire.
Specification F.7/30, which was formally issued to the aircraft industry in October 1931, called for an all-metal day and night fighter armed with four machine guns, a high top speed and rate of climb, and a landing speed of less than 60 mph. The importance of a good view from the cockpit was made clear. Although the use of any power plant was permitted, the Air Ministry did express a preference for the evaporatively cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk then being developed.
Of the many proposals submitted by manufacturers, three were selected for official development as prototypes, the Supermarine 224 among them. In addition, privately funded submissions for the competition were encouraged. R. J. Mitchell, Supermarine's designer, came up with a clean-looking inverted gull-wing monoplane with a fixed undercarriage powered by the 600 hp Goshawk II.
The gull wing configuration was chosen in order to shorten the undercarriage legs and so reduce drag, but since this configuration was known to be liable to produce problems with lateral stability an extensive programme of wind-tunnel testing using models was carried out before arriving at the final design. These tests also revealed a lack of directional stability: Mitchell accordingly enlarged the fin area.
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