Talk:R. J. Mitchell/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Zawed (talk · contribs) 09:29, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

I will review this one, comments to follow in due course. I note that this is a largish article, so I may break up the review into manageable chunks over a few days. Cheers, Zawed (talk) 09:29, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

Wow, I've been focussed on some other Wiki work and time has gotten away from me here; sorry for the delay in coming back to this. Some comments as follows:

Lead

• FRAeS is given as a postnominal, but no mention of this in the article so technically uncited.

Note added. AM

• Link Hanley High School, otherwise this section is in good order

Done. AM

Infobox

• Write out CBE

Done. AM

Family and education

• Needs to mention dob, otherwise technically it is uncited
• Suggest breaking the sentence RE his father, at the point when he sets up a printing business. It is a pretty long otherwise.

Both sorted. AM

Career at Supermarine

• ...and dates from 1916, when he was possibly undergoing a probationary period.: Earlier in this section, it states that he joined Supermarine in 1917.
• He became chief designer in 1919,...: this is already inferred from the first sentence of this paragraph (he replaced the chief designer). Regardless this seems an incredibly rapid rise for someone so young; is there anything the sources that will allow you to draw this out?
• at Olympia in 1920.: is there more context for the timing of this, particularly relative to the competition already mentioned?
• The sentence regarding the organisation of the design office into two departments stands out in isolation. I wonder if it could somehow be integrated into the following sentence when the "design team", e.g. "...Mitchell's design team, which he had re-organised that year into separate drawing and technical offices,..."
• Following the Air Ministry specification 5/36,: feels like some missing words here, suggest: "Following the issuance of Air Ministry specification 5/36,"
• I don't know if it is a big deal for you, but I note the cites at the end of the first paragraph of the Sea Lion series (early 1920s) are not in sequential order.
• At the end of 1927, he became...: Because the year is already used in the previous sentence suggest "At the end of the year, he became"
• was that he remained as a designer: To avoid repetition of "remained", suggest "was that he stay as a designer"
• Two Supermarine S.5 seaplanes were entered for the 1927 contest.: suggest mentioning here that the race was to be in Venice (and move link from existing mention of Venice).
• invited Rolls-Royce Limited: suggest writing Limited as Ltd for consistency with how company names are treated in this article.
• The victory won the contest outright for Britain.: I don't get this sentence as the previous sentence already says the S.6B won the Schnieder Trophy.
• awarded the CBE: suggest writing out CBE in full.
• Mitchell was proceeding on designing the Type 300: suggest "Mitchell was proceeding with the design of the Type 300"
• Despite his illness, he travelled to Eastleigh...: there is no antecedence for him being ill at this time, suggest rewording to "Despite being ill, he travelled to Eastleigh"
• "unparalleled expertise...": This starts off a quote, which should have a citation at its end. At present, the citation is at the end of the paragraph rather than the quote.

All done. AM

Illness and final years

• "Harold Payn", just checking the spelling of the surname, it is very unusual. Are you sure it doesn't end with an e, i.e. Payne?
• Link Vienna

Both done. AM

References

• Generally look OK but assume the Mitchell author is unrelated to the subject?

Gordon Mitchell was his son; according to Pegram, the book Gordon wrote about his father was done with the assistance of a ghost writer. Amitchell125 (talk) 16:53, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

I was a little uncomfortable about the usage of this book given the "co-author"'s relationship to the subject but from my Googling, Tempus Publishing looks to be reliable plus the source itself is not heavily used, compared to Pegram. This eases my concerns somewhat but I think that this may get closer scrutiny if the intention is to take this to FAC. Zawed (talk) 09:17, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

• Shouldn't cite 94 be in the book section?

A surplus ref, so now removed. AM

• The title styles are mixed; these should be made consistent

Sorted. AM

• Cite 65 is missing an ampersand

Sorted. AM

• Cite 99 is missing a pg no.

Ref replaced, as no page number available. AM

Other stuff

• One dupe link, but that is to £ so I think OK in the circumstance
• Image tags look OK or would otherwise clearly be public domain

Tags amended (a tricky process) AM

That's about it for me at this stage. Zawed (talk) 10:28, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

@Zawed: Thanks for the above comments, now all addressed. Amitchell125 (talk) 19:57, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

Happy with the changes, so am passing this as GA as I believe that the article meets the necessary criteria. Zawed (talk) 09:17, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Many thanks! One of his aircraft, Supermarine Sparrow, is also a GA nominated article (if you're interested). Regards, Amitchell125 (talk) 09:26, 15 December 2022 (UTC)