The Vickers Supermarine Seafire was an urgent development of the Spitfire to generate a high-performance carrier-based fighter aircraft. Somewhat compromised in service by an undercarriage that was not designed from the outset to handle the rigours of carrier deck landings, the Seafire nevertheless gave valuable service throughout its operational life.
The Seafire Mk IB was a conversion of the land-based Spitfire VB with modifications carried out by Air Service Training (AST) and Vickers Supermarine with the main changes being the introduction of a retractable arrester hook and adjacent fuselage strengthening.
The Seafire was produced in eight marks, with 14 prototypes, 538 Spitfire conversions and 2,094 new aircraft, making a total of 2,646 aircraft (see the table below summarising production numbers from the various manufacturers involved).
The most important marks were (in numerical order):
• Mk IB, and Mk IIC (542 aircraft converted from Spitfire VB and VC);
• Mk III with folding wings (Supermarine prototype and 1,263 new-build aircraft built by Westland Aircraft and Cunliffe-Owen)
• Mk XV Griffon-powered (six prototypes and 434 production aircraft from Westland and Cunliffe-Owen)
• Mk XVII with cut-down rear fuselage (prototype and 233 production aircraft, mainly from Westland).
The other production variants were the Griffon-powered F.45, F.46 and F.47.
The Seafire F.47 was the final and most highly developed aircraft of the Spitfire / Seafire family and test pilot Jeffrey Quill is quoted as saying that 'the overload weight of a Seafire F.47 was equivalent to a Spitfire Mk I carrying 32 airline passengers'!
Despite the operational limitations of its relatively short range and somewhat fragile undercarriage, the Seafire saw operational service through to the end of the Second World War, operating with the Pacific Fleet.