Supermarine Seafire; The Great British Bodge Job

Which Corsair & Hellcat variant was supposedly slower than a Seafire?

UK has named some of there ships with stupid Names

Oh dear, that voice! Shudder!!!! :(

Ed your note about the Seafire being 'faster' than the Corsair, might be true in a small performance window, in a narrow time period. I'm afraid you left open a window for Spitfire-fan confirmation-bias to run wild. lol. Excellent video, as usual.

1940 Britain had Wildcats before the US Navy when French contracts were "transferred" to Britain.
1941 December HMS Audacity sunk with four "Martlets".
1942 June Brewster Buffalos made up 3/4 of the fighters on Midway Island.

Sounds like great credit goes to the pilots' dedication and skill and the training of the RN air arm.

The greatest enemy that the FAA and RN faced were British politicians and the RAF, and till this day nothing has changed. Countless lives of very brave men has been the price.

Who named u.k ships

Biggest problem was the weak undercarriage. Salerno....disaster for Seafires...Too many deck prangs uie the undercart also being too short and the Seafire having a large pro..pToo heavy a landomg..prop got wrecked and the engine badly shocked.

I think the HMS Formidable was Britain's most formidable carrier.

I'm here all week, folks.

See also the Nimrod Aew3

Can you just imagine the Mechanics taking a Saw to the Spitfires blades , I will think about that next time I do the same to a 8 x 2 ..Great Vid.

I’m surprised the typhoon wasn’t the first choice rather than the spitfire (seafire).

Imagine the fishermen hauling in their nets with one of the wedges thinking, "what the hell is this?"

Jeffrey Quill’s autobiography has some valuable information as to the development of the Seafire, especially the landing doctrine he effectively created - which for similar reasons was also used by the FAA for the Corsair (allowing it to be used as a carrier borne fighter before the USN). Quill was Supermarine’s chief test pilot and was seconded to the FAA with a rank of Lt. commander, serving on board numerous carriers for months as in effect an operational test pilot.

Does it remain a bodge if it works???

So after watching this video I've had a thought why did no one ever think of doing a naval version of the p-51? If this was ever put forward could people let me know as I can't think of any major reason why it couldn't have been done but again I'm not 100% certain so if you have any information on this idea please let me know

The Brits nowadays are masters in inventing solutions for problems which don’t exist: brexit, the solution for a non existing problem throwing away the good things they had and replacing them with actual problems claiming they never voted for it.

not irony mate

They should have used the MB5 - waste of a good plane

Great and balanced video.
Your channel deserves far more subs. Hope you get them.

They could have done something about the under cart, but I guess they (the Air Ministry) were being very Air Force, like the Australian and US Air Forces! Then again they had to deal with politicians as well. How about more study tours for politicians to the Front, during the hard times! All of the Fronts, they are more easily replaced than other Assets.

Dewoitine D.520 is pronounced De-Woy-Teen. A great fighter in France, 1940, as good as the Me-109 in speed and manoeuvrability, and nearly as good as the Spitfire in speed. If the D.520 hadn't shot down as many Nazi planes as it did, the RAF would not have won the Battle of Britain.

The firefly was one of the rare good WW2 British naval fighters. Very good armament, decent turning ability and excellent low speed handling - crucial for carrier landings. The extra size (for the navigator) is a drawback, should have been a gunner instead like on American helldivers.

Royal Navy fighters in WW2 were awful and any success was down to pilot skill. Thank god for the Americans with the Grumman Wildcat, Hellcat and Chance-Vought Corsair! All were excellent aircraft and superior to the Sea Hurricane and Seafire. The Bristol Centaurus should have had a higher priority and the Sea Fury.

Another Great video, love your chanel ! So I have been watching the FAA videos and the 2 place requirement for navigators makes sense. My Grandfather was a pilot / navigator on fleet scout floatplanes in teg 1930's and they needed navigators too. How did the Americans and Japanese get away with single place naval fighters with 1000+ mile range? Over the Pacific how did they deal with not having a navigator in the 30's ?

Disclaimer, my grandfather was a Swedish Flygvapnet pilot, and didn't fly for the FAA. The Swedish Navy used Flygvapnet aircrews in the 20's and 30's.

Fun fact there was only one RN carrier that could strike Seafires without folding wings into her hangar: HMS Argus a conversion built in 1917

I did not hear of any strengthening of the landing gear.
The landing gear of a Spitfire does look so 'fragile'.

I can’t believe Meyer said “Acrobatics”🙉🙉🙉

I love your vids but as foreign viewer on this one you lost me at min 10!

I would love to see a movie showing these kamikaze shooters on the task. "You want to kill this boat by commiting suicide ? No way... Let me kill you first...❤💀

Hurricane did have excellent full flap control and wery forgiving landing speeds

Anything British?.............quick get the mud and wake the trolls.....does anybody else see this trend??.....oh well we all know about the boy that cried wolf?, so keep calm and carry on my beloved kin and country.....GST'UK'N'FTR,🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧.....

I love your channel 👍🇭🇲

Corsair was definitely a better option, once the Brits worked out the kinks.

Why not come out with a Hawker Sea Typhoon variant boasting a nice wide undercarriage ?

Just as well the Germans never built any carriers - the plan was to use a modified Bf109, which was already well-known for having a fragile and stalky undercarriage.

Sad that the Supermarine Seafang never made it to the fleet

Good summary, hitting most of the key points. Glad you included Corky Meyer's comments on the Mk.III, and you nailed it regarding the obsolete Hurricane.

Amazing colour footage

47 makes the design even better!

I would of thought you would want a plane that can carry a bomb

It is my understanding, that the Americans did Carrier Trials with P-51 Mustangs. It was decided to call the trials off before they killed someone as the Mustang was entirely to fragile for Carrier Operations - in the opinion of those testing it.
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Sometimes a bodge job is just barely adequate, but if there is no choice you go with it.

Captain Eric Brown said that it had plusses and minuses but that every new pilots could experience of flying the best there was And he flew every wartime seaplane