Supermarine 1913-63

It may be hard to imagine in 2022, but Great Britain was once filled with a plethora of aircraft manufacturers. One hundred years ago, the seeds of many of them were being sown, as the demand for aircraft gained pace following the outbreak of WWI. Not all survived following the armistice and the subject of this book, Supermarine, only kept going by the skin of its teeth and certainly did not settle into a profitable aircraft manufacturing business until the mid to late 1920s. However, with the genius mind of Reginald Joseph Mitchell on board, the company could do no wrong and without doubt, the company’s most famous and well-known product was the Spitfire. Following Mitchell’s demise, we must not forget the man who carried the baton, Joe Smith, who developed the Spitfire and Seafire into a machine that remained in production for ten years. This book gives readers an insight into the aircraft produced by Supermarine, and those that did not quite make it, as well as a history of the aircraft company itself.