[caldrail]

Interesting, but you don't seem to understand the difficulties of building Spitfires. They were not as easy to manufacture as Hurricanes and the nature of production line manufacture is that the main assembly plant relies on a network of parts suppliers, rather like car manufacture is today although on a smaller scale. Further, Supermarine was building all metal monocoque fighters for the first time, and this was also the first time (as you point out) that they received such a large order, so part of the delay was actually getting the production lines underway. We shouldn't be too suprised at that and this sort of thing afflicted other aircraft types as well in other countries. The P51 for instance, built to British order as a fighter for the European conflict, suffered from labour difficulties that the Americans had to bring troops in to quell before production resxumed, and this at a time when Britain was a desperate customer.

Syndney Camm was of course beloved of the Air Ministry. He had supplied aircraft for the RAF for some time and had a proven record, so any design of his was going to be looked at seriously once it was a viable project.