This Day in Aviation History
January 7th, 1942
First flight of the Supermarine Seafire.
 
The Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. The name Seafire was arrived at by abbreviating the longer name Sea Spitfire.
 
The Admiralty first showed an interest in the idea of a carrier-borne Spitfire in May 1938 when, during a meeting with Richard Fairey (of Fairey Aviation), Fairey proposed that his company could design and build such an aircraft. The idea met with a negative response and the matter was dropped. As a result, the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), at that point still part of the Royal Air Force, was forced into having to order Blackburn Rocs and Gloster Sea Gladiators, both of which proved to be woefully inadequate. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, many of the aircraft operated by the FAA were considered to be obsolete in comparison to Germany’s land-based fighters; thus the need for more capable aircraft was readily apparent. As the Hawker Hurricane had quickly proven to be adaptable to carrier-based operations, there was considerable interest in navalising the Spitfire as well….
 
Source:
Wikipedia, Supermarine Seafire: http://gstv.us/22L1tKT
 
YouTube, Supermarine Seafire Mk.XVII: http://gstv.us/22L1EWC
By Wings
 
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Photo from: http://gstv.us/22L1RsJ
 
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