Spitfire memorial competition
The good people of Southampton, home of the magnificent Spitfire aircraft, rightly felt that they needed their own tribute, something that was missing from the city. They set up a competition to design the memorial. Shaun’s entry was inspired by the sort of fine filigree patternwork observed in nature’s own delicate flying machines.
The aircraft was held aloft by sweeping supports emanating from its wingtips, in recognition of the origins of the beautiful elliptical wing shape, which was developed to reduce the swirling vortices of air that would otherwise slow its flight. Sadly, the design was not selected, but received a huge amount of publicity for the memorial fund.
The strange thing about the design that was selected is that it is similar to Shaun’s design, but it only has a single support at the tail of the aircraft. This is completely missing the point about one of the things that made the Spitfire so special and successful – the aerodynamic magic happens at the wingtips.