Supermarine
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Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer. It was set up by Noel Pemberton-Billing as Pemberton-Billing Ltd in 1913 to produce sea-going aircraft. Upon election as an MP in 1916 he sold the company to Hubert Scott-Paine who renamed the company Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. The company became famous for its successes in the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes, especially the three wins in a row of 1927, 1929 and 1931.
In 1928 Vickers Aviation took over Supermarine to become Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd. In 1938 it was part of Vickers-Armstrong (Aircraft) Ltd.
The first Supermarine landplane to go into production was the famous and successful Spitfire. The earlier Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire were the two fighter aircraft which fought off German bombing raids with fighter escorts during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. While the Hurricane was available in larger numbers and consequently played a larger role, the new Spitfire caught the popular imagination and became the aircraft associated with the battle.
Other well-known planes from World War II were the Seafire (a naval version of the Spitfire). Supermarine also developed the Spiteful/Seafang the successor of the Spitfire/Seafire and the Walrus flying boat.
The Supermarine main works was in Woolston, Southampton which led to the city being heavily bombed in 1940.
The last of the Supermarine aircraft was the Supermarine Scimitar. After that, in the shakeup of British aircraft manufacturing, Vickers became part of the British Aircraft Corporation and the individual manufacturing heritage names were lost.
Supermarine Aircraft
- Supermarine Stranraer - General-purpose flying boat
- Supermarine Walrus - Reconnaissance amphibian
- Supermarine S.6B - Racing seaplane (first aircraft over 400 mph)
- Supermarine Spitfire (1936) single seat fighter
- Supermarine Sea Otter (1938) flying boat
- Supermarine Spiteful - (1944) replacement for the Spitfire
- Supermarine Seafang - (1946)
- Supermarine Attacker (1946) jet fighter
- Supermarine Seagull (1948) air-sea rescue and reconnaisance
- Supermarine Swift - post World War Two jet fighter
- Supermarine Scimitar - Naval ground attack aircraft
- Supermarine Type 545 - supersonic version of Swift
- Supermarine Type 553 (1953) - supersonic fighter project
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