I’ve just dug out some correspondence that I had with Jeffrey Quill in 1980, he subsequently wrote me a three page article on the High Speed Spitfire for “Vintage Aircraft” magazine – which I was publishing and editing at the time.
Jeffrey refered to the colour scheme as “special royal blue with a silver cheat line”. The paint was applied by coachbuilders from the Rolls-Royce car company shortly after the first flight – which was made by “Mutt” Summers on 10 November 1938. The paint scheme consisted of 16 coats, each individually rubbed down by hand to give a completely smooth surface finish.
Photos that I had at the time (passed on to JQ) show the delineation of blue to silver following the leading edge of the wing, upper wing blue, lower wing silver. Negative Nos 18009 and 18010 from the “Flight” photo library show the details particularly clearly.
JQ flew N.17 for 10 minutes on 14 December for “speed trials” and again on January 4, 13, 24, February 12, 16, 17, 25 and March 6.
The pilot designated for the World Record attempt was to have been Sqdn Ldr H. “Bruin” Purvis, he was based at Farnborough but used to fly down to Eastleigh to fly N.17. JQ would warm up N.17 whilst “Bruin” was flying down in the early morning and after a high-speed run would take him back to his house in Burseldon for breakfast.
“Bruin” flew N.17 to Farnborough on 8 March 1939 and it remained there for a short period before returning to Eastleigh.
With the raising of the WSR by Fritz Wendel and a top speed of only 408 mph Supermarines decided the only way to up the speed was a reduction in drag by eliminating the radiator and converting the top fuel tank into a coolant tank cum condenser, it was calculated that there would be just enough coolant to complete a run before it boiled off.
Work was completed and JQ taxied out for a test flight on the new system on 30 April 1940. After 100 yds the cockpit was enveloped in steam and some very expensive noises were emanating from “under the bonnet”. He shut down immediately and N.17 was towed back to the hangar, never to fly again in its record-breaking form.
On conversion to K9834 (it had been Spitfire No.47 off the line) it was fitted with a Merlin 12 driving a constant-speed prop, a PRU windscreen was fitted, the paint scheme retained and it was allocated to the PRU at Benson where it was flown by successive CO’s including Wg Cdr Geoffrey Tuttle, Gp Capt David Waghorn and Air Cdr John Boothman. It was also flown by Flt Lt Neil Wheeler. All of these officers went on to distinguished careers retiring with high ranks.
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