page_title: Supermarine
section_title: Post World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Supermarine / History / Post World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Supermarine Swift FR.5 XD905 landing at the Farnborough Air Show
context_page_description: Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that produced the legendary Spitfire fighter plane for Britain during World War II, and a range of seaplanes and flying boats. The company had successes in the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes, with three wins in a row of 1927, 1929 and 1931.
  The company was founded in 1913 as Pemberton-Billing Ltd on the River Itchen close to Woolston, Southampton, on ground previously purchased by Noel Pemberton Billing to construct motor launches. It produced a couple of prototypes using quadruplane designs to shoot down zeppelins, the Supermarine P.B.29 and the Supermarine Nighthawk. The aircraft were fitted with the recoilless Davis gun and the Nighthawk had a separate powerplant to power a searchlight.
  Upon election as an MP in 1916 Pemberton-Billing sold the company to his factory manager and longtime associate Hubert Scott-Paine who renamed the company Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. The company became famous for its successes in the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes, especially the three wins in a row of 1927, 1929 and 1931.
context_section_description: Following the end of the war with no further need for dispersal of production the Itchen works was rebuilt but not the Woolston works.  The manufacturing facilities were split into the Southern (Chilbolton, Eastleigh, Hursley and Itchen) under Leonard Gooch and Northern (South Marston and Trowbridge) under Stuart Lefevre.
  With little demand for flying boats and lacking expertise in large multi-engined aircraft Supermarine concentrated on jet fighters, building the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, the Attacker. To expedite its development Smith used the wings of Spiteful mated to a new fuselage housing a Nene engine. It served front line squadrons aboard aircraft carriers and RNVR squadrons at shore bases. The Attacker was followed by the more advanced Swift which served in the fighter and photo-reconnaissance roles.
  The last aircraft to bear the Supermarine name was the Scimitar, the final examples of which were delivered in 1957.
  In the late 1950s Supermarine became engaged in non-aviation related work ranging from film equipment to hovercraft (from 1961). The Vickers-Armstrongs VA-3 hovercraft which was constructed in the reconstructed Itchen works.
  In the consolidation of British aircraft manufacturing in the late 1950s, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) became a part of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960 and the individual manufacturing heritage names were lost.
  A separate Supermarine design office continued to exist at Weybridge until 1957 when many staff were absorbed into the main Vickers-Armstrong organisation or relocated to the new Supermarine headquarters at South Marston in Wiltshire. In response to government specification GOR.339, Vickers-Armstrong whose design team largely consisted of ex-Supermarine engineers (based in Weybridge) offered the Type 571. This design was eventually merged with that proposed by English-Electric/Short design to create the final design for the BAC TSR-2.
caption: Swift FR.5, Farnborough air show, 1955
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