Sigh for a Merlin : Testing the Spitfire

by Alex Henshaw

Alex Henshaw spent the early days of World War II at Eastleigh, England, testing the immortal Spitfire fighter with Jeffrey Quill before being appointed Chief Test Pilot at Supermarine's new factory in Castle Bromwich. Thousands of Spitfires were tested and manufactured at this site throughout the war, by the end of which 37,000 test flights had been made with Alex Henshaw flying an estimated ten percent of all Spitfires ever built. Often landing without aids of any kind, his breathtaking aerobatic style and complete mastery of the aircraft were to save his life on several occasions.

Genres: History, Aviation, Biography, World War II

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 4, 1980

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learn about airplanes that were at the brink of technology...the newer generation of stressed-skin, monocoque airframes mated to race-proven v-12 cylinder engines.......they were crude in the beginning and some had no electrical system in the start but that eliptical wing that was hard to reproduce in numbers was just the ticket. it provided all marques of Spitfire with more than exceptional turning radius compared to the Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfs before WWII was over.

[Jack Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quintessential memoir on the flight testing of the Spitfire, with the best title to boot. On the downside it is light on technical details, and continually anecdotal (at times pure Henshaw biography). A classic portrait of the life of a production test pilot in WWII, nonetheless. Also covers flight testing of the Lancaster. Highly recommend Alex Henshaw’s other book, “Flight of the Mew Gull”.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for research purposes, but enjoyed thoroughly as it well written, concise, occasionally very funny and often beggars belief.

Alex Henshaw, Chief Test Pilot at the largest Spitfire factory in Britain in WW2, tested an estimated 10 per cent of all Spitfires ever built. He was almost certainly the most technically capable Spitfire pilot of all time. When demonstrating the Spitfire to VIPs (including Churchill and the King) he would fly it upside down across the airfield below the heigh of the hangar roofs.

In Sigh for a Merlin he also recounts multiple forced landings, bale outs and terrifying prangs that come as part and parcel for someone testing aircraft straight off a stressed production line. Somehow he survived all, including descending on a parachute with only one cord, and thank god he did as he was clearly a lynchpin in Britain's Spitfire production from 1941 on, working incessantly despite nightly Luftwaffe bombing in the Midlands, friends being killed and enormous pressure from the RAF, Air Ministry, Beaverbrook etc. I'm talking multiple sorties a day for weeks on end, without pause for weekends or Christmas in every imaginable weather condition.

For me, this was more enjoyable than Jeffrey Quill's memoir (probably the only other Spitfire test pilot of equal fame), but an interest in Spitfires/aviation/the wartime RAF is probably needed.