Sigh For A Merlin: Testing The Spitfire

Alex Henshaw was awarded his private pilot's in 1932 and made a name for himself during the 1930s competing in the air races which were to popular at the time. At the start of World War Two he became a test pilot first for Vickers Armstrong but was then invited by Jeffrey Quill to test Spitfires at Eastleigh. In June 1940, Henshaw moved to the Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham shortly afterwards becoming Chief Test Pilot there.

In the years that followed, he flew thousands of the Spitfir...