The late Jeffrey Quill described the author as "A modest sort of chap who always seemed to know what he was talking about"

This book traces his career from 1928 to 1961 in the laboratories of the Supermarine Aviation Company (later Vickers Supermarine), designers and builders of the famous SPITFIRE.

It does not cover flight testig but rather the processes of solving the many technical and material problems which were encountered both in the early stages of design and during the whole of the war period whe it was necessary to bring about constant improvements in performance to keep one step ahead of the enemy - and let's face it, sometimes to catch up!

This book is sometimes technical, sometimes critical of authority, often amusing but always understandable.

Harry Griffiths joined Supermarine in 1928 as a laboratory assisstant. Her served an apprenticeship from 1930 - with some workshop experience but mostly in the chemical, metallurgical and structure test laboratories. IN later years he was mainly involved in metallurgical work including the investigation of material and structural failures which led to important researches into the behaviour of high strength aluminium alloys. He has a theory that technical reports should always be written in such a way that even the managing director could understand them! In his book "Testing Times" he has not forgotten that theory.