Military Model Scene

Title: Supermarine Secret Projects, Vol 2
Illustrator: Ralph Pegram
Publisher: Tempest Books
ISBN: 978-1-911703-04-4

Following on from the previous volume, looking at their Flying Boats, this new volume 2 considers the various Fighter & Bomber designs which also came out of the Supermarine design studios. A 130-page soft-cover bookazine format publication with some of their projects which made it into service, others as prototypes and yet more which didn't get beyond the design stage.
The story is spread across 12 chapters, starting at the beginning, when Noel Pemberton-Billing was involved when in 1916, his company, Pemberton-Billing Ltd became Supermarine Aviation Works. Something of a 'character' in the aviation world and his career makes for interesting reading. With archive photos plus drawings of some of their earliest designs, it grabbed my attention for starting with so much I hadn't known about before. I'd certainly not seen the P.B.31E, a twin engine, 4-winged Zeppelin destroyer! It then moves on to a number of Flying Boat Fighters and then Bombers. After a takeover by Vickers there were plenty of designs but not great commercial success. Bombers, transports all were attempted. Then more monoplane designs in the 1930s before they got to Reginald Mitchell's most famous of them all, the Spitfire. They weren't all single-engine fighter designs, there are two-seaters, cannon armed and twin-engine designs. The Type 319 I liked, with cannon installed rather like the German Schrage Musik of the late war period. Their 4-engined bomber ideas, such as the Type 317 I had never heard of before. As well as Navy Fighter designs which include the Seafire of course, went on to include their jets as well. The Attacker is well known but other designs such as the Type 508 featured a twin Y-tail configuration which reminded me of the more modern US designs. Add others such as the Swift and the naval Scimitar and various stages in the design featured in drawings as well as archive photos of production aircraft, that brings it to the end of the Supermarine story, when the name was finally lost.
While the Supermarine name is well known for their Schneider Trophy winning floatplanes, the Spitfire, their flying boats and the post war jets, there was so much more to the Supermarine story which I for one had never known of before. A good value bookazine which I think will please modellers and aviation historians alike.
Thanks to Tempest Books for our review copy.

Robin