Supermarine Spiteful
1944 British fighter aircraft / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Supermarine Spiteful was a British fighter aircraft designed by Supermarine during the Second World War as a successor to the Spitfire. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, it had a radical new wing design to allow safe operations at higher speeds and incorporating inwards-retracting undercarriage. Other changes included a larger fin to improve the marginal stability of Griffon Spitfires. Development of the wing was formalised by Air Ministry specification F.1/43; as well as a new aircraft, there was an expectation the wing could be used as a replacement for the elliptical wing on Spitfire production.
Spiteful | |
---|---|
General information | |
Type | Fighter |
National origin | United Kingdom |
Manufacturer | Supermarine |
Designer | |
Service | Royal Air Force |
Prototypes | NN660, NN664, and NN667[1] |
Number built | 19 (including the three prototypes) |
History | |
First flight | 30 June 1944 |
Developed from | Supermarine Spitfire |
Developed into | Supermarine Seafang |
The Spiteful was ready for production as the war was ending, but in testing had shown only marginal improvements over existing types, and was now being overtaken by jet-powered designs. Of the original order for 150 Spitefuls, only 19 were built. Meanwhile the Royal Navy opted for a navalised variation of the Spiteful type, the Supermarine Seafang, but few of those were bulit either. The wing developed for the Spiteful was used for the Supermarine Attacker jet.