Supermarine Seafire
The navalised Spitfire — arrester hook, catapult spools and, from the Mk III, folding wings · First flight 1942 · In service 1942
The Seafire was the Spitfire adapted for aircraft carriers, with an arrester hook, catapult spools and strengthened structure. The first examples were converted Spitfire Vs; the type first flew on 7 January 1942 and the first deliveries went to 807 Naval Air Squadron in June 1942. Seafires flew their first combat operations during the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November 1942.
The Mk III introduced manually folding wings and became the most numerous version, with 1,220 built by Westland and Cunliffe-Owen. Operations off Salerno in September 1943 exposed the type's weakness on deck: the narrow undercarriage and long nose caused many landing accidents, and only 39 of 106 Seafires were still serviceable two days after the landings. Griffon-engined Mk XV and later marks followed from late 1944.
The final F Mk 47, with a Griffon 88 driving contra-rotating propellers and four 20 mm cannon, flew ground-attack and air-patrol missions from HMS Triumph in the Korean War in 1950. Post-war operators included the French Navy, which received 65 Mk IIIs, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Irish Air Corps.
