The tile mural that depicts a Spitfire plane is mounted on the wall of a building in Bennett Precinct part of the Longton Exchange shopping area in the centre of Longton.
The mural commissioned by IM Properties plc commemorates the aeroplane’s designer R. J. Mitchell (1895-1937) and was erected on 31st January 1995.
The mural depicts a Spitfire, an RAF's WW2 fighter plane, that was designed by the aeronautical engineer and designer Reginald J Mitchell CBE AMICE FRAeS.
The mural painted by Kenneth Potts in 1994 shows the Spitfire in flight over the white cliffs of Dover. Around the Spitfire that is central to the mural there are images that depict sketches of all the other aircraft that Mitchell designed before he secured his place in history with the famous Spitfire fighter plane.
The timeline that details some events in Mitchells life is situated at the bottom of the mural. The details listed are as follows;
20TH MAY 1895BORN
AT 115 CONGLETON ROAD
BUTT LANE, STAFFORDSHIRE
1903 - 1906MOVED TO NORMACOT
ATTENDED QUEENSBURY ROAD
HIGHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
1906 - 1911ATTENDED HANLEY
SECONDARY SCHOOL
1911 - 1916APPRENTICED TO KERR, STUART & CO
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERING WORKS
FENTON
1917 - 1937CHEIF ENGINEER/ DESIGNER
AT SUBMARINE AVIATION WORKS
(VICKERS) LTD, SOUTHHAMPTON
11TH JUNE 1937R.J. MITCHELL
DIED AT THE AGE OF 42
IN SOUTHAMPTON
"Reginald Joseph Mitchell CBE AMICE FRAeS.British aircraft designer RJ Mitchell was born Reginald Joseph Mitchell in Stoke-on-Trent, England, in 1895. His father was a school headmaster and owned a printing business. RJ, as he came to be known, got interested in aviation while attending high school, and began making and flying his own model airplanes. It wasn't long before he developed a reputation among his fellow students for being "mad" about aircraft. When he turned 16 he entered an apprenticeship with a firm that designed locomotives. He started at the workshop where the engines were built and eventually worked his way up to the drawing office, meanwhile taking evening classes in drawing, mechanics and higher mathematics.
In 1917, after finishing his apprenticeship, he applied to be assistant to Hubert Scott-Pain, the owner and chief designer of Supermarine Aviation Works in Southampton, and was accepted. In less than a year he was promoted to assistant to the works manager. In 1918 he married Florence Dayson, the headmistress of a childrens school. They had one son.
In 1919 the 24-year-old Mitchell was made chief designer, and the next year chief engineer. For almost 20 years Mitchell was to design and develop more than 20 aircraft for the company. Supermarine, established in 1912, had specialized in manufacturing seaplanes--or, as they were called back then, "flying boats"--and Mitchell improved on the company's already solid reputation in that field. He designed an armed flying boat called the Southampton--based on an earlier craft he had designed called the Swan--and the British military establishment was so impressed with Mitchell's design and concept of the plane that it ordered six of them before the first one had even been built. When the craft made its debut in March 1925, it lived up to everyone's expectations. The RAF equipped six of its squadrons with the Southampton and it remained in service for more than ten years, making Britain a pioneer in marine aviation and, incidentally, turning Supermarine into an extremely profitable concern.
Branching out into high-speed aircraft design, Mitchell developed the Sea Lion, a small biplane flying boat that won the 1922 Schneider Trophy race with an average speed of more than 145 mph. He entered the race the next year, but was tremendously impressed with another entry, the American Curtiss seaplane, which won the race. Mitchell began developing a series of "float" planes, and eventually came out with a series of four streamlined craft. One of them, the S5, won the Schneider trophy in 1927; its successor, the S6, took it in 1929 and the final one, the legendary S6B, won the race in 1931, with an average speed of 340 mph (it eventually set a world speed record of 407.5 mph). In 1932 Mitchell was awarded the CBE for his contribution to high-speed flight.
The quality and innovations of Mitchell's craft made him the top aircraft designer in Britain, and Supermarine signed him to an unheard-of ten-year contract in 1923. In 1927 he was made technical director for the company. He was so valuable to the firm that when Vickers took over Supermarine in 1928, one of the non-negotiable terms of its purchase was that Mitchell would be bound to the new company, without having the option to leave on his own, until 1933.
Mitchell's best-known aircraft, however, was the legendary Spitfire (the name was coined by the company, not Mitchell, and he hated it) fighter, which he began developing in 1934 and completed in 1936 and which is now considered a masterpiece that combined speed, manoeuvrability, agility and streamlined design; it has been termed by many experts "the plane that won the war for Britain". Unfortunately, however, Mitchell never saw the plane fly in combat. He died of cancer in Southampton, England, on 11th June 1937.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com"
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