The Supermarine Seafang was a British

Rolls-Royce Griffon The Rolls-Royce Griffon is a British 37-litre (2,240 cubic inch, cu in) Engine displacement, capacity, 60-degree V12 engine, V-12, liquid-cooled Aircraft engine, aero engine designed and built by Rolls-Royce Limited. In keeping with compan ...

–engined

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

Supermarine Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer. It is most famous for producing the Spitfire fighter plane during World War II. The company built a range of seaplanes and flying boats, winning the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes with three cons ...

to Air Ministry specification N.5/45 for naval use. It was based on the Spiteful, which was a development of Supermarine's Griffon-engined

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the ...

aircraft. By that time the Spitfire was a 10-year-old design in a period of rapid technical development in aviation. The Seafang was outmoded by jet aircraft, and only 18 were built.Price, 2001

Design and development

The Seafang was essentially a Spiteful redesigned for

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

carrier use, with the addition of an arrester hook, a

contra-rotating propeller Aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers (CRP) coaxial contra-rotating propellers, or high-speed propellers, apply the maximum power of usually a single engine piston powered or turboprop engine to drive a pair of coaxial propellers i ...

to eliminate engine

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...

effects, and power folding outer wing panels. Two prototype Type 396 Seafang Mark 32s were ordered on 12 March 1945 followed by an order for 150 Type 382 Seafang Mark 31s on 7 May 1945. To expedite entry into service the interim Mark 31 was ordered which was a navalised Spiteful, basically a Spiteful with an arrestor hook added. This would allow the Mark 32 to be developed; it would be the definitive naval variant, with the folding outer wings and contra-rotating propeller. The first Seafang flew in 1946; it was the first interim production Mark 31 ''VG471''. Although 150 of the interim variant were ordered, only nine were completed before the order was cancelled as the urgency of an interim type was removed due to the end of the war. The first prototype Mark 32 ''VB895'' was first flown in June 1946. It was powered by a Griffon 89 engine rated at driving two three-bladed contra-rotating propellers. In August 1946, ''VB895'' was demonstrated to the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world. During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...

at Valkenburg.Sturtivant 2004, p. 561. The same aircraft was flown by test pilot Mike Lithgow in May 1947, during deck landing trials on . Compared to the Seafire F.47, its performance advantage was not deemed to be enough to disrupt series production of new navalised

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...

and

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland DH100 Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteo ...

jet fighters. Also, the Seafang's low-speed handling characteristics were not as good as hoped, and the contemporary Hawker Sea Fury was preferred as a fleet fighter. Seafang Mark 31 ''VG474'' was used as a development aircraft for the Supermarine Attacker jet, receiving power-operated aileronsBingham 2004, pp. 90–93 and contra-rotating propellers. The Attacker was a jet design which used the Spiteful laminar-flow wing and landing gear.

Variants

;Type 382 Seafang F Mk.31 :Interim production variant with a 2,375 hp Griffon 61 engine, five-bladed constant-speed Rotol airscrew. 150 ordered but only 9 built; the rest were cancelled. ;Type 396 Seafang F Mk.32 :Two prototypes built powered by a 2,350 hp (1,752 kW) Griffon 89 piston engine, folding wings, increased fuel capacity, dual contra-rotating 3-bladed propellers.

Operators

; *

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

Specifications (F Mk.32)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Andrews, Charles Ferdinand and Eric B. Morgan. ''Supermarine Aircraft Since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1981. * Bingham, Victor. ''Supermarine Fighter Aircraft''. Marlborough, UK: The Crowood Press, 2004. . * Buttler, Tony. ''British Secret Projects: Fighters and Bombers 1935–1950''. Hersham, Surrey, UK: Midland Publishing, 2004. . * Humphreys, Robert. ''The Supermarine Spitfire, Part 2: Griffon-Powered'' (Modellers Datafile 5). Bedford, UK: SAM Publications, 2001. . * Morgan, Eric B. and Edward Shacklady. ''Spitfire: The History''. London: Key Publishing, 1992. . * Price, Alfred. "A Spitfire too far: the Supermarine Spiteful". ''Aeroplane Monthly'', July 2001, pp. 36–41. * Robertson, Bruce. ''Spitfire: The Story of a Famous Fighter''. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK: Model & Allied Publications Ltd., 1960. Third revised edition 1973. . * Sturtivant, Ray. ''Fleet Air Arm Fixed-Wing Aircraft since 1946''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air Britain (Historians) Ltd., 2004. . {{Supermarine aircraft Seafang 1940s British fighter aircraft Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Single-engined piston aircraft Aircraft with contra-rotating propellers Aircraft with retractable conventional landing gear Carrier-based aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1946