Seafire development
There was a fully comprehensive history of the Seafire in Captain Eric “Winkle Brown’s “Spitfires with Sea-legs”, an article in the October 1978 “Air International” which by coincidence I have just read. Here is an abbreviated extract that throws some light on the problems encountered:
After the unexpectedly high incidence of deck-landing accidents during the first day of Operation Avalanche, in advance of the next series of coastal landings called Operation Gragoon, Jeffrey Quill was made an RNVR Lt-Cdr by the 5th Sea Lord and sent to practice deck landing in the Seafire and report back, since Captain Brown was deemed too experienced in deck landing by this time to be able to give a clear indication of the difficulties that an average pilot could encounter.
Asa test pilot, Jeffrey was the ideal choice, and the report he submitted on 29 February 1944 included four main observations:
(1) Pilots had to be trained to employ a curved approach;
(2) Multi-ejector type exhaust manifolds should be fitted to all Seafires and the pilots trained to land with their heads out of the cockpit and looking along the port side of the engine cowling;
(3) the Seafire had inherent poor speed controllability;
(4) the Seafire lacked the necessary robustness for carrier landings, but the fitting of a sting-type hook would probably reduce the accident rate.
As his article goes on to relate, eventually these measures were implemented, and in the end the Seafire was developed into a fully capable deck landing aircraft, especially with the Griffon engine.
I repeat, this is the best description of the evolution of the Seafire that I have ever read, and it would be well worth reprinting, if that is possible, for the current generation of readers.
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