Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire The Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire is an Australian homebuilt aircraft produced in kit form by Supermarine Aircraft. A replica of the famous British Supermarine Spitfire World War II fighter, it was originally produced to 75% scale. Subsequent models have increased the scale of the fuselage and added a second seat. Australian pilot and aviation engineer Mike O'Sullivan had always wanted a Spitfire and built a replica for his own use in 1991. This was followed by a , Rotax-powered prototype in 1994. The next year, in 1995, he joined with business partner John McCarron to form the Supermarine
Supermarine Spitfire of carrier-deck operations, it was considered the best available fighter at the time. The basic Spitfire design did impose some limitations on the use of the aircraft as a carrier-based fighter; poor visibility over the nose, for example, meant that pilots had to be trained to land with their heads out of the cockpit and looking along the port cowling of their Seafire. Like the Spitfire, the Seafire also had a relatively narrow undercarriage track, which meant that it was not ideally suited to deck operations. Early Seafire marks had relatively few modifications to the standard Spitfire airframe; however cumulative