Sir Robert McLean

Sir Robert McLean (3 February 1884 – 9 April 1964) was a Scottish industrialist and engineer. He was General Manager of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and later Chairman of Vickers Aviation Limited.

Early life McLean was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland on 3 February 1883 the son of The Reverend D McLean. After the war when he returned to India he became the Assistant Secretary of the Railway Board, in 1919 he was promoted to Secretary.

Spitfire

As Chairman of Vickers (Aviation), he was responsible for buying Supermarine in 1928. He gave his eldest daughter born 3 July 1911 in Knutsford, later Annie Penrose, the nickname a little spitfire; which is where the Spitfire aircraft took its name from. The Spitfire had also been given to the Supermarine Type 224 in 1934.

It was not just the name that he gave to the Spitfire; with Arthur Sidgreaves he had decided to start the project that led to the, known initially as the Supermarine Type 300. The Air Ministry placed a contract for the aircraft on 1 December 1934 for £10,000. On 3 June 1936, Supermarine received an order for 310 Spitfires for £1.25m. The Spitfire name was confirmed by the Air Ministry on 10 June 1936. The first production Spitfire K9787 flew on 15 May 1938 from Eastleigh.

Family life McLean Married Evelyn Noel Girard in India in 1908, they had two daughters. He died on 9 April 1964 in Edinburgh, Scotland, aged 80.