Elliptical Elegance: Flying And Evaluating The Seafire Mark III

It’s commonly agreed that the Spitfire/Seafire configuration was the most beautiful fighter ever. Its elliptical wing and long, slim fuselage were most delightful to the eye, and its flight characteristics equaled its aerodynamic excellence. The Navy Spitfire, the Seafire, was heavier, but otherwise retained all of the Spitfire’s delightful flight characteristics.

- Corky Meyer

The Spitfire and Seafire series had only two unacceptable features to perturb a fighter pilot: one was caused by its configuration, and the other was the result of gross negligence on the part of the design team. The length of its nose and the aircraft’s steep, nose-high angle provided insufficient forward visibility when taxiing. The slimness of the fuselage alleviated this problem somewhat, but continual S-turns while taxiing were mandatory. And the cockpit’s internal layout was a disaster! It was configured as if blindfolded engineers had played “Pin the tail on the donkey.” Important switches, instruments and controls weren’t labeled and were small and hidden. Unimportant items, too, weren’t labeled, but they were large and always in the way. So much for the objective evaluation. In reality, combat pilots would forget these drawbacks when airborne!

I was checked out by two soon-to-be-famous Royal Navy lieutenants: Mike Lithgow, who became chief test pilot of the Supermarine after the War and also became my good friend; and Peter Twiss, who became chief test pilot at Fairey Aircraft. On March 10, 1956, he set a world speed record in the Fairey Delta-2 by flying the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000mph in level flight. Lithgow and Twiss were not only friendly check pilots but were also most helpful in getting me off the ground and back to the flightline.