Supermarine
Spitfire
Photo: Robert Deering 8/28/2014
Museum of Science and Industry
Chicago, Illinois
Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that became famous for producing a range of sea planes and the Spitfire fighter.
More about the Supermarine Spitfire

HISTORY

Noel Pemberton Billing set up a company, Pemberton-Billing Ltd, in 1913 to produce seagoing aircraft. Its telegraphic address, used for sending telegrams and cables to the company, was; Supermarine, Southampton. It produced a couple of prototypes using quadruplane designs to shoot down zeppelins; the Supermarine P.B.29 and the Supermarine Nighthawk. The aircraft were fitted with the recoilless Davis gun and the Nighthawk had a separate powerplant to power a searchlight. Upon election as an MP in 1916 Pemberton-Billing sold the company to his factory manager and longtime associate 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-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. The phrase Vickers Supermarine was applied to the aircraft.

The first Supermarine landplane design to go into production was the famous and successful Spitfire. The earlier Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire were the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command fighter aircraft which fought off the Luftwaffe 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. It went on to play a major part in the remainder of the war, in a number of variants and marks, and it was the only allied fighter aircraft to be in production through the entirety of World War Two.

Other well-known planes from World War II were the Seafire (a naval version of the Spitfire). Supermarine also developed the Spiteful and Seafang, the successors of the Spitfire and Seafire, resp., and the Walrus flying boat.

The Supermarine main works was in Woolston, Southampton which led to the city being heavily bombed in 1940. This curtailed work on their first heavy bomber design, the Supermarine B.12/36 which was replaced by the Short Stirling.

After the end of World War Two, the Supermarine division built the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, the Attacker, which served front line squadrons aboard aircraft carriers and RNVR squadrons at shore bases. The Attacker was followed by the more advanced Swift which served in the fighter and photo-reconnaissance roles. The last of the Supermarine aircraft was the Scimitar.

After that, in the shakeup of British aircraft manufacturing, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) became a part of the British Aircraft Corporation and the individual manufacturing heritage names were lost. Northshore Marine Motor Yachts builds a range of motorboats under the Supermarine name in Chichester, Portsmouth, England.

Source: Wikipedia

AIRCRAFT    
Pemberton-Billing P.B.1  1914  
Pemberton-Billing P.B.9    
Pemberton-Billing P.B.23    
Pemberton-Billing P.B.25 1915  
Pemberton-Billing P.B.29    
AD Flying Boat 1916  
AD Navyplane 1916  
Supermarine Nighthawk 1917 Anti-Zeppelin fighter aircraft
Supermarine Baby 1917 Single seat fighter flying boat
Supermarine Sea Lion I  1919 Schneider race flying boat
Supermarine Sea Lion II and III 1922  
Supermarine Channel 1919 Civil version of the AD Flying Boat
Supermarine Scylla 1920  
Supermarine Sea Urchin  1920  
Supermarine Commercial Amphibian 1920  
Supermarine Sea King 1920 Single seat fighter flying boat
Supermarine Seagull 1921 Amphibian Fleet Spotter
Supermarine Seal 1921  
Supermarine Sea Eagle 1923  Civil amphibian flying boat
Supermarine Scarab 1924  Military version of Sea Eagle
Supermarine Sheldrake    
Supermarine Swan  1924 Experimental amphibian
Supermarine Sparrow 1924  Ttwo-seat ultralight
Supermarine Southampton 1925 Flying boat
Supermarine S.4  1925 Schneider Trophy race seaplane
Supermarine S.5  1927 Schneider Trophy race seaplane
Supermarine Nanok 1927  
Supermarine Solent 1927  
Supermarine Seamew  1928 Twin-engined flying boat
Supermarine S.6  1929 Schneider Trophy race seaplane
Supermarine S.6B 1931 Schneider Trophy race (first aircraft over 400 mph)
Supermarine Air Yacht  1931 Six-passenger flying boat
Supermarine Type 179 1931  
Supermarine Scapa  1932 Flying boat
Supermarine Stranraer 1932  General-purpose flying boat
Supermarine Walrus 1933  Amphibian fleet spotter
Supermarine Type 224  1934 Unsuccessful design for a fighter aircraft to Air Ministry specification F.7/30
Supermarine Spitfire 1936 Single seat fighter
Supermarine Sea Otter  1938 Flying boat
Supermarine 322 also S.24/37 or "Dumbo" 1939  
Supermarine Spiteful  1944 Rreplacement for the Spitfire
Supermarine Seafang  1946 Development of Spiteful
Supermarine Attacker  1946 Jet fighter
Supermarine Seagull ASR-1  1948 Air-sea rescue and reconnaissance
Supermarine 510  1948 Swept wing Attacker prototype
Supermarine 535  1950 Swift predecessor with Nene engine
Supermarine Swift 1951  Jet fighter
Supermarine 508 1951  V-tailed, twin engined straight winged fighter prototype
Supermarine 521  1950 Modified Attacker fuselage as basis for Handley Page HP.88
Supermarine 525  (1954 Iimmediate predecessor of Scimitar
Supermarine Scimitar 1956 Naval ground attack aircraft