Supermarine Spiteful The Supermarine Spiteful was a British Rolls - Royce Griffon - engined fighter aircraft designed by Supermarine to Air Ministry specification F . 1 / 43 during the Second World War as a successor to the Spitfire . Design and development . By 1942 , Supermarine designers had realised that the aerodynamics of the Spitfire ' s wing at high Mach numbers might become a limiting factor in increasing the aircraft ' s high - speed performance . The main problem was the aeroelasticity of the Spitfire ' s wing ; at high speeds the relatively light structure behind the strong leading edge torsion box would flex , changing the airflow and limiting the maximum safe diving speed to 480 mph ( 772 km / h ) IAS . If the Spitfire were to be able to fly higher and faster , a radically new wing would be needed . Joseph Smith and the design team were aware of a paper on compressibility , published by A D Young of the R . A . E , in which he described a new type of wing section ; the maximum thickness and camber would be much nearer to the mid - chord than conventional airfoils and the nose section of this airfoil would be close to an ellipse . In November 1942 Supermarine issued Specification No 470 which ( in part ) stated : Specification 470 described how the wing had been designed with a simple straight - tapered planform to simplify production and to achieve a smooth and accurate contour . The wing skins were to be relatively thick , aiding torsional rigidity which was needed for good aileron control at high speeds . Although the prototype was to have a dihedral of 3° it was intended that this would be increased in subsequent aircraft . Another change , to improve the ground - handling , was replacing the Spitfire ' s narrow - track , outward - retracting undercarriage with a wider - track , inward - retracting system . The Air Ministry were impressed by the proposal and , in February 1943 , issued Specification F . 1 / 43 for a single seat fighter with a laminar flow wing ; there was also to be provision made for a wing folding scheme to meet possible Fleet Air Arm requirements . The new fighter was to use a fuselage based on a Spitfire VIII . The new wing was fitted to a modified Spitfire XIV " NN660 " , in order to make a direct comparison with the earlier elliptical wing , and was first flown on 30 June 1944 by Jeffrey Quill . Although the new Spitfire ' s speed performance was comfortably in excess of an unmodified Spitfire XIV , the new wing displayed some undesirable behaviour at the stall which , although acceptable , did not come up to the high standards of Mitchell ' s earlier elliptical wing . " NN660 " crashed on 13 September 1944 , killing pilot Frank Furlong . No reason for the loss was officially established . In the meantime , the opportunity had been taken to redesign the Spitfire ' s fuselage , to improve the pilot ' s view over the nose and to eliminate a slight directional instability by using a larger fin and rudder . This instability had been apparent since the introduction of the more powerful Griffon engine . The instability was exacerbated by the increase in propeller blade area due to the introduction of the four - bladed and subsequent five - bladed Rotol airscrews for the next aircraft , " NN664 " ( for which Specification F . 1 / 43 had been issued ) . The updated design incorporated the new fuselage ( although lacking the enlarged fin / rudder ) and , as it was now substantially different from a Spitfire , the aircraft was named " Spiteful " ( although " Victor " had been originally proposed ) . Operational history . The Spiteful was ordered into production as the Spiteful XIV ( having no preceding marks of its own , the numerals were carried over from the original Spitfire XIV conversion ) , and 150 of the aircraft were ordered . With the advent of jet propulsion , however , the future of high - performance fighters was clearly with the jet fighter , and so the order was later cancelled with only a handful of Spitefuls built . At the time however , there was some uncertainty over whether jet aircraft would be able to operate from the Royal Navy ' s aircraft carriers so it was decided to develop a naval version of the Spiteful , to specification N . 5 / 45 , subsequently named Seafang . The Seafang featured folding wingtips , a " sting " - type arrester hook and a Griffon 89 or 90 engine , fed from an extended carburettor air intake driving new Rotol six - bladed contra - rotating propellers . The first one produced was a converted Spiteful XV ( " RB520 " ) but with the successful operation of the de Havilland Sea Vampire from the carrier in 1945 , the need for the Seafang disappeared . With the end of the Second World War , Supermarine entered into discussions with " Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Nord " ( SNCAN ) about licence production of the Spiteful in France , but again the introduction of jet fighters overshadowed the piston - engined fighter and the talks came to nothing . Jet Spiteful . In late 1943 or early 1944 , Supermarine ' s chief designer Joe Smith suggested Supermarine develop a simple jet fighter based around the Spiteful ' s wing , and use a new jet engine being proposed by Rolls - Royce ( later the Nene ) . This proposal was accepted and a new specification , E . 10 / 44 , was issued by the Air Ministry for an experimental aircraft which was initially referred to as the " Jet Spiteful " ; the prototype " TS409 " first flew on 27 July 1946 . The E . 10 / 44 was not ordered by the RAF , as its performance was not substantially better than the Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Vampire , but the Admiralty expressed an interest in the aircraft for use as a naval fighter and issued specification E . 1 / 45 around it . The aircraft was subsequently named " Attacker " and had a successful ( if short ) career with the Fleet Air Arm and the Pakistan Air Force . Spiteful tail . The enlarged fin / rudder of the Spiteful was also used on the Spitfire Mark 22 and 24 s and Seafire Mark 46 and 47 s and was usually referred to as the " Spiteful type " tail .