Summary: Instructional film with voice-over for groundcrews of the routine inspection procedures to be followed on a Supermarine Spitfire Mk I. Filmed at RAF Northolt during the early summer of 1940. Spitfires featured are 609 Squadron aircraft.
Description: I. The Supermarine Spitfire on the airfield, taxiing, being refuelled and wheeled into the hangar. Documents (the maintenance schedule and Periodical Inspection Certificate) are shown.
II. The Flight Rigger inspects undercarriage, tyres, cockpit, fuselage wheel recesses and ailerons.
III. The Flight Mechanic at work checking blocks, Merlin engine, oil cooler and air intake; the Armourer unloads the guns and examines the blast tubes, magazine doors and gun panels.
IV. The Wireless Operator and the Electrician make various tests inside the cockpit, the fuselage, the accumulator and the tail unit (lights and fuel gauges are checked). The Instrument Repairer checks the rate of climb indicator and the oxygen cylinders.
V. "Inspection Completed". Outside the hangar, the Flight Mechanic makes a final test. A brief recapitulation of the various stages is followed by the freshly-inspected Spitfire taking off.
