Supermarine Spitfire several roles, including interceptor, photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, and trainer, and it continued to serve in these roles until the 1950s. The Seafire was a carrier-based adaptation of the Spitfire that served in the Fleet Air Arm from 1942 through to the mid-1950s. Although the original airframe was designed to be powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine producing 1,030 hp (768 kW), it was strong enough and adaptable enough to use increasingly powerful Merlins and, in later marks, Rolls-Royce Griffon engines producing up to 2,340 hp (1,745 kW). As a result, the Spitfire's performance and capabilities improved over the course of its
Rolls-Royce RB401 Rolls-Royce RB401 The Rolls-Royce RB.401 was a two-spool business jet engine which Rolls-Royce started to develop in the mid-1970s as a replacement for the Viper. RB.401-06 prototype engines were already being manufactured when a decision to develop the higher thrust RB.401-07 was taken. Although ground testing of both the -06 and -07 continued into the early 1980s, a lack of funds caused the project to be cancelled. Although the basic configuration of both engines was almost identical, the -07 variant had a larger fan diameter. The -06 version HP compressor was based on the eight-stage version of the RC34B research