Supermarine Spiteful

[Brian James]

The Supermarine Spiteful (pictured) was a British Rolls-Royce Griffon-engined fighter aircraft designed by Supermarine to Air Ministry specification F.1/43 during the Second World War as a successor to the Spitfire. It had a new wing design to improve its critical Mach number, and allow safe operations at higher speeds. The new design also had a modern inwards-retracting undercarriage. Other changes included a larger fin to improve the somewhat marginal stability of Griffon Spitfires and changes to the mounting of the engine to tilt it down slightly for better visibility over the nose.
The Spiteful was ready for production as the war was ending, but was passed over in favour of jet-powered designs. The Royal Navy continued development of the Carrier-borne version as the Supermarine Seafang as it was not clear jets could safely operate from aircraft carriers, but the success of the de Havilland Sea Vampire led to this project being cancelled in 1945, of the original order for 150 Spitefuls, only a small number were completed.