Supermarine
5 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Supermarine (founded in 1913 as Pemberton-Billing Ltd) was a British aircraft manufacturer. It is most famous for producing the Spitfire fighter plane during World War II. The company built a range of seaplanes and flying boats, winning the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes with three consecutive victories (in 1927, 1929 and 1931). Pemberton Billing sold the company to his longtime associate Hubert Scott-Paine in 1916, when it was renamed Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd.. In 1928, Vickers-Armstrongs took over Supermarine as Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd. and in 1938 all Vickers-Armstrongs aviation interests were reorganised to become Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, although Supermarine continued to design, build and trade under its own name.
Aircraft Types
Supermarine S.5
A British racing floatplane designed by Reginald Mitchell and built by Supermarine for the Schneider Trophy. Three were built, one with a direct-drive Napier Lion and two with geared Lions; at Venice in September 1927 they finished first and second, Webster's N220 averaging 281.65 mph. A modified S.5 also took third place in the 1929 contest behind the newer S.6. None of the originals survives; a full-scale replica flew in 1975, and another airworthy example is being built.
Supermarine S.6B
A British racing seaplane designed by Reginald Mitchell and built by Supermarine for the 1931 Schneider Trophy contest. Refined from the S.6 around a more powerful Rolls-Royce R engine, it won the trophy outright for Britain in September 1931 and then set an absolute world air speed record of 407.5 mph. Only two were built; the race winner survives at the Science Museum in London.
Supermarine Southampton
The Supermarine Southampton was a British military flying boat designed by R. J. Mitchell and built by Supermarine for the Royal Air Force. Developed from Mitchell's civilian Swan, it entered service in August 1925 and became the RAF's principal inter-war patrol flying boat, famous for long-distance formation cruises such as the Far East Flight of 1927-28. The RAF took eighteen wooden-hulled Mk Is and forty-eight metal-hulled Mk IIs, and the type served for eleven years; the restored wooden fuselage of one Mk I is on display at the RAF Museum in London.
Supermarine Spitfire
British single-seat fighter designed by R. J. Mitchell for Supermarine and first flown in 1936. With the Hawker Hurricane it defended Britain against the Luftwaffe in 1940, then served on every major front of the Second World War as an interceptor, photo-reconnaissance aircraft, fighter-bomber and trainer. It remained in production throughout the war — 20,351 were built — and in service into the 1950s. About 240 are reported preserved today, approximately 60 of them airworthy.
Supermarine Type 224
Supermarine's single-prototype fighter to Air Ministry Specification F.7/30, designed by R. J. Mitchell and first flown in February 1934. The evaporative cooling of its Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine proved troublesome and its speed and climb fell well short of prediction, so the Air Ministry rejected it and the production order that followed went to the Gloster Gladiator. Mitchell set the design aside and started again; the lessons he drew from the Type 224 fed the complete redesign that became the Spitfire. The prototype ended its career as a target in 1937.