Supermarine

Supermarine (founded in 1913 as Pemberton-Billing Ltd) 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 consecutive victories (in 1927, 1929 and 1931). After the war, the company produced a series of jet fighters.

The company was located on the River Itchen close to Woolston, Southampton, on ground purchased by the British aviator and inventor Noel Pemberton Billing. He designed two prototype quadruplanes designed to shoot down Zeppelins—the Supermarine P.B.29 and the Supermarine Nighthawk. Pemberton Billing sold the company to his longtime associate Hubert Scott-Paine in 1916, when it was renamed Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd..

In 1928, Vickers-Armstrongs took over Supermarine as Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd. and in 1938 all Vickers-Armstrongs aviation interests were reorganised to become Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, although Supermarine continued to design, build and trade under its own name. The first Supermarine landplane design to go into production was the Spitfire, which caught the popular imagination and became the aircraft associated with the Battle of Britain. The aircraft went on to play a major part during the Second World War, in a number of variants and marks. Other company planes from the period include the Seafire (a naval version of the Spitfire). Supermarine developed the Spiteful and Seafang, the successors of the Spitfire and the Seafire respectively, and the Walrus flying boat. The Supermarine main works was heavily bombed in 1940. This caused work on their first heavy bomber design, the Supermarine B.12/36, to be abandoned.

Supermarine built the Royal Navy's first jet fighter, the Attacker, developed from the final Spitfire type. It served front line squadrons aboard aircraft carriers and RNVR squadrons at shore bases. This was followed by the more advanced Swift, which served in the fighter and photo-reconnaissance roles. The last of the Supermarine aircraft was the Scimitar. After Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) became a part of the British Aircraft Corporation, its individual manufacturing heritage names, including that of Supermarine, were dropped. All these heritage companies are now part of BAE Systems.