Spitfire 1939 Sales Brochure Facsimile

A facsimile of a Supermarine Spitfire 1939 export sales brochure, originally produced to sell Spitfires to the French. Complete with diagrams, photographs and particulars, this beautiful booklet is a must for any Spitfire fan.

Size: 35cm  x  22cm

Brochure History

In 1937 Supermarine received an order from the Ministry of Aircraft Production for 300 Spitfires. At the same time, a Ministry procurement team was scouring the American aircraft industry looking for fighter aircraft to take on the Luftwaffe. In light of this, Supermarine believed they would receive no further orders from the Ministry and believed the inevitable conflict with Hitler would be over quickly.

The company turned its attention to potential export sales. One potential customer was France. Although the French army was the biggest in the world, the French Air Force did not possess sufficient modern fighters to take on the Luftwaffe, with its Messerschmidt Bf 109e already proven in the Spanish civil war. Naturally, the first sales brochure was produced in two languages, English and French. Supermarine was successful in obtaining an order for Spitfires from the French government. The outbreak of WWII interfered with delivery of the aircraft and this explains why some of the early RAF Spitfires had metric instrumentation. It is scarcely believable that just three months before the outbreak of WWII, Supermarine charged their technical publications department with producing export sales brochures because they believed the RAF would not order further Spitfires. The Spitfire went on to become the only aircraft produced continuously throughout the war and afterwards was exported to numerous countries.