Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire
homebuilt replica aircraft
The Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire is a homebuilt aircraft produced in kit form by Supermarine Aircraft. A replica of the famous British Supermarine Spitfire World War II fighter, it was originally produced to 75% scale. Subsequent models have increased the scale of the fuselage and added a second seat.
Supermarine Aircraft – a company unconnected to the original manufacturer of the Spitfire – commenced operations in 1994, in Australia. It later moved its factory to Cisco Airport, Texas and its head office to the nearby town of Clyde.
Design and development
Australian pilot and aviation engineer Mike O'Sullivan had always wanted a Spitfire and built a replica for his own use in 1991. This was followed by a 75 hp (56 kW), Rotax-powered prototype in 1994. The next year, in 1995, he joined with business partner John McCarron to form the Supermarine Aircraft company and produce all-Australian home-build aircraft kits. In the event, the constant-speed, four-blade propeller would be obtained from a specialist firm in New Zealand. Supermarine Aircraft is not related to the original British Supermarine company, although the owners of the Supermarine marque have given their permission for the name to be used.
The public source identifies “Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire” as homebuilt replica aircraft. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Supermarine, Aircraft and Spitfire.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7643909. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1994, 1991 and 1995.
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This entry incorporates text from “Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.