1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Supermarine Spiteful FXIV side view c1945: British official photographer· Public domain
what is it?
The Supermarine Spiteful was a British fighter aircraft designed by Supermarine during the Second World War as a successor to the Spitfire. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, it had a radical new wing design to allow safe operations at higher speeds and incorporating inwards-retracting undercarriage. Other changes included a larger fin to improve the marginal stability of Griffon Spitfires.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 10.7 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 82 years ago, in 1944.
- Top speed is 6.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 10.7 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
- Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1944-06-30
- number built
- 22
- role
- fighter
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- makers
- Supermarine
- engines
- 1× Rolls-Royce Griffon 69
- crew
- 1
- length
- 10 m
- wingspan
- 10.7 m
- height
- 4.1 m
- max take-off weight
- 4,513 kg
- top speed
- 777 km/h
- cruise speed
- 386 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 12,802 m
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q954091, Wikipedia: Supermarine Spiteful (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.