A Seafire Mk.IIc on the deck of HMS Formidable in December 1942. This variant didn’t feature folding wings, but it did have catapult spools, in addition to also having fuselage strengthening plates.

With war in Europe now raging, huge pressure was being placed on a reorganising Royal Air Force to defend Britain against a fearsome onslaught which would surely come at any time. Bolstering these defences led to the Air Ministry issuing a decree that the Royal Navy would have to take over the responsibility for defending their own bases and installations against air attack, in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure off the RAF, even though this did cause more than a little concern within the Royal Navy hierarchy. 

The Navy simply didn’t have a dedicated single seat fighter for this task and with Spitfires and Hurricanes clearly out of their reach, they looked across the Atlantic for their solution and the diminutive Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat. The French had already selected the Wildcat for service in European skies and the Fleet Air Arm simply jumped aboard this same aviation bandwagon with an order of their own, even before the US Navy had selected the aircraft for home fleet service. As it would transpire, the defeat of France meant that the vast majority of their Wildcats were not delivered, with the balance simply being diverted to Britain, where it would be known as the Martlet in Fleet Air Arm service.

As a dedicated naval fighter, the little Grumman gave British designers important pointers as to what was required for an aircraft destined to defend aircraft carriers, even though the aircraft would initially be assigned the shore based base defence duties relinquished by the RAF around the time of the Battle of Britain. Historically, the Martlet would score the first air combat victory for a US built fighter type operating in the European Theatre, when a Luftwaffe Ju88 was brought down on Christmas Day 1940.

The first of two pieces of new box artwork produced in support of this surprise mid-year catalogue addition, the Rolls Royce Griffon powered Seafire F.XVII was a potent performer and incredibly easy on the eye. Should a fighting aeroplane look this good?

With its reputation now established, the Royal Navy were desperate to get their hands on navalised variants of the Spitfire at the earliest possible opportunity and indeed an order for 50 fighters was placed with Supermarine for work to commence. Unfortunately, as the RAF was still in a period of attrition recovery at that time, an Air Ministry interjection at the highest level claimed that the loss in cost and production man hours of converting these 50 aircraft would potentially deprive the Royal Air Force of around 200 desperately needed fighters. Although the accuracy of such a claim was never challenged, the order was duly cancelled and even though the Navy were eventually granted a supply of war weary former RAF Hurricanes converted for operations at sea, they probably still felt a little short changed, even though this did still represent an increase in capability for the Fleet Air Arm.

When comparing how the world’s aircraft carrier forces operated at that time, its interesting to note that whilst both the US and Japanese carrier fleets had perfected the storage and operation of their aircraft from the decks of their carriers, the Royal Navy favoured storing their aircraft below deck. Unfortunately, the navalisation of former RAF Hurricanes did not extend to adopting folding wings, so the arrival of Hurricanes led to some deck space issues for handling crews to manage. They did come up with an ingenious solution, which was to weld rigid grooved steel frames to the hull of carriers, into which the tailwheel of a Hurricane could be placed, with the frame capable of supporting the aircraft when it was pushed back onto it, with the rear half basically suspended out over the ocean. Although this appeared to be quite a precarious solution, it did free up valuable deck space on Britain’s carriers.

When Winston Churchill later visited the Royal Navy’s new carrier HMS Indomitable in 1941, he was dismayed to learn that this magnificent new carrier would be relying on a collection of Sea Hurricanes to provide air protection, the same basic aircraft which had fought during the Battle of Britain almost eighteen months previously. He immediately ordered that a more suitable fighter be produced for the Navy, a decision which brought the Spitfire back into the picture, particularly as an American alternative would not be available at that time due to their own pressing needs.

With its unrivalled reputation, the Fleet Air Arm were obviously delighted to finally be getting their Sea Spitfires, but would the RAF’s famous fighter be suitable for life on the ocean waves? With the situation being so pressing, it was obvious that compromises would have to be made, particularly as there was no time to redesign the aircraft to include all the features associated with naval aeroplanes, such as folding wings. By the end of that year, the first Sea Spitfire, or Seafire as it would be known, had completed its deck landing trials and was being readied for the transition to naval fighter.

Scheme A – Supermarine Seafire F.XVII SX156, No.767 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset, England, 1950.

Visually, the changes incorporated into this version were quite dramatic, as it featured a low-back fuselage arrangement (aft of the cockpit) and the adoption of a 360 degree visibility teardrop canopy, greatly increasing the pilots field of view from the cockpit. Whilst retaining many of the design features of the F.XV, the cut-down rear fuselage allowed additional fuel to be carried, or the return of reconnaissance cameras which could not be carried by its predecessor, however, if fuel was carried in this section of the aircraft, its transfer and usage would require careful handling, as if not correctly managed, the aircraft’s centre of gravity could be compromised.

The additional ground clearance offered by the longer, strengthened undercarriage legs proved to be a significant improvement and all but ended the tendency of previous versions to ‘deck peck’ their propeller tips and its ability to carrier heavier loads certainly made this a more capable fighting aeroplane. The low back of this variant gave the F.XVII a very un-Spitfire-like appearance, although to many aviation enthusiasts, produced the most attractive variant of all the Fleet Air Arm Seafires. The Seafire F.XVII entered squadron service in late 1945, but after the end of the Second World War.  

Scheme B – Supermarine Seafire F.XVII SX138, No.807 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Vengeance, 1947.

No.807 Squadron had the distinction of being the third operational unit to be equipped with the Seafire F.XVII in late 1945, initially based at Nutts Corner, where it embarked on a concerted period of work-up. During the late summer of the following year, the unit would spend a four week period embarked on HMS Implacable, where squadron pilots could practice deck landings using their potent new fighters, following which they would spend the next few months operating from several different stations. The unit was unusual in that it was not assigned to a Carrier Air Group, something which was no doubt instrumental in determining their later deployment to RAF Lübeck as part of the Second Tactical Air Force in Germany.

Scheme C – Supermarine Seafire F.XVII SX159, 1831 Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Naval Air Station Stretton (HMS Blackcap), Cheshire, England, 1947-1951.

Reservists were required to complete at least 75 hours of weekend training each year, with the additional commitment of a two week training camp every twelve months, something which always proved to be the highlight of the year, as this would often include deployment with a serving front line unit. The first Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve fighter squadron was No.1831 RNVR, which was formed on 1st June 1947 at RNAS Stretton near Warrington, equipped with a collection of Seafire F.XV and Seafire F.XVII fighters at that time.

In 1949, the Admiralty decided that they wanted to test the capabilities of their reserve units and mounted full scale exercises aboard aircraft carriers, in what was intended to be as close to an operational deployment as could be simulated. After undergoing carrier drill training and as long as carrier landing currencies were in place, cleared members of No.1831 RNVR embarked on HMS Illustrious in September 1949, spending two weeks aboard the carrier, which must have been an incredibly exciting time for all concerned. In the years where a carrier deployment could not be arranged, RNVR pilots would spend two weeks on camp, where they would undertake such disciplines as gunnery practice, air to air and air to ground firing practice, the firing of unguided rockets and bombing practice, all very exciting stuff.

Only added to the 2023 range this week, we are looking forward to seeing this distinctive Seafire F.XVII box on model shop display shelves a little later this summer.