additional goofs


1; the biplane racer shown in the early schneider trophy races was actually a WW2 era Supermarine walrus, used originally for spotting on capital ships, later in air-sea rescue.
2; The winning aircraft in italy in 1927 was S.5, #4, not S.6, #2 , as in the film. S.6,#2, won in 1929 in the U.K.

Headly Lamarr

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Also found a list of goofs from the Wikipedia entry on this movie:

"The First of the Few contains several historical inaccuracies:

Mitchell's exact illness is not mentioned. He had rectal cancer and had a colostomy in 1933. However the film gave many people the impression that he contracted tuberculosis as a consequence of an immune system weakened by overwork.

Mitchell did not work himself to death on the Spitfire. He did, however, continue to work despite the pain of his illness, tweaking and perfecting the Spitfire design up until his death. Designer Joseph Smith had taken over the primary design work by the time of the first flight of the Spitfire prototype.

Mitchell did not visit Germany and so never met Willy Messerschmitt. The film shows that the trip convinced him to design the Spitfire.

Geoffrey Crisp is a fictional character based on an amalgam of Vickers's test pilots, Jeffrey Quill (also an RAF veteran) and "Mutt" Summers. Quill actually flies a Spitfire in the film, and had tested the Spitfire in battle, shooting down three aircraft while on temporary assignment to the RAF.


However, the film contains precious footage that would be otherwise be lost to posterity:

Film footage of the Supermarine S.4 in taking off from Southampton Water, and in flight, which is now available nowhere else. The film also includes footage of many real-life Battle of Britain fighter pilots in the opening and closing scenes. RAF fighter pilots such as Tony Bartley and Brian Kingcombe (with pipe) have cameo roles in the scenes at the dispersal, and are seen discussing their flights before take off and after landing with David Niven.
Leslie Howard's portrayal of Mitchell has a special significance since Howard was killed when the transport aircraft in which he was a passenger was shot down by the Luftwaffe one year after the film was released."


Also, the scenario where Crisp crashes the Supermarine seaplane during the 1925 competition for the Schneider Trophy is apparently fictional. From Wikipedia:

"The Supermarine S.4 was a 1920s British single-engined single-seat monoplane racing seaplane built by Supermarine to compete in the 1925 Schneider Trophy. It crashed and was destroyed before the competition started.

With high hopes of a British victory, the S.4, together with two Gloster III biplanes, was shipped to the United States of America for the 1925 race.[5] During trials at Bay Shore Park, Baltimore on 23 October 1925, piloted by H. C. Biard, it was seen to sideslip into the water from 200 ft (61 m) and was wrecked.[6] Biard, who survived with two broken ribs, stated that he lost control following violent wing vibration.[7] The race was won two days later by Lieutenant James Doolittle, flying a Curtiss R3C at an average speed of 232.573 mph (374.443 km/h), faster than the S.4's world record of a month before.[8]"



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I wouldn't say that those are goofs, but rather, those are fictional elements in a historical drama. The movie doesn't aspire to be a documentary.



"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

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I agree there. The trouble is, most of the time that it's shown on TV, it's described as a true story! It was made as a propaganda film and is simplified and a lot of it is fiction. For example, the film shows Mitchell asking Royce to build an engine for his new fighter. In fact, the Merlin engine wasn't designed for the Spitfire - it was a private venture by Rolls Royce. Mitchell's first fighter, the type 224, had a RR Goshawk engine and was nothing like the Spifire. It was an excellent film but it certainly isn't a "true story"!

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