R.J. Mitchell was virtually self-taught; surprisingly, almost all his other aircraft 24 aircraft were slow-flying seaplanes. How a lad from the land-locked Midlands, apprenticed to a locomotive works, came to be responsible for the Spitfire is a great tale in itself. This detailed book tells us how Mitchell learned his trade - from 1916, contributing to the production of the cumbersome Nighthawk, designed to combat the German Zepplin threat, and gradually coming to produce record-breaking racin