Michael (Mike) O’Sullivan’s Supermarine Aircraft Factory officially began its life in the kit aircraft manufacturing business in 1995, although the original idea is much older. It has been the dream of countless aviators since the end of the Second World War to build and fly a Spitfire.

Spitfires have not been produced since 1948 due to the complexity of the design and this makes it very difficult to replicate the original aircraft. The ‘Hangar talk’ at the time suggested that it was simply not possible to make a metal, reduced scale, Spitfire although it seems the only reason that it could not be done was because no one had done it!! This was all the incentive Mike needed, so in his garage at home he set about making the impossible.

Even with over 30 years of hands on experience building and maintaining aircraft it still took over seven years to develop the innovative procedures and manufacturing techniques required to make the first all metal replica Spifire. His hard work and determination eventually paid off in when in November 1994 the first all metal metal replica Spitfire in the world took to the skies over Queensland. It has since flown to airshows and ‘fly-ins’ around Australia and thanks to Mike’s efforts it now means that homebuilders world wide can now buy a Spitfire kit that is fast and easy to build. With 700 hours of construction work already completed the kit is shipped to customers factory jigged and with all major components formed.

The Mk26 is now a well proven design with its all aluminium components pre-drilled and precision cut using a computer controlled CNC router cutter. This keeps parts standards consistent and accurate, a far cry from the original Spitfires construction methods. The main structural sections of the aircraft are pre-built in factory jigs thus ensuring the highest possible accuracy of these critical components. The method of construction is aimed at the average person who is good with their hands.

Materials
The aircraft is aluminium except for some fibreglass fairings. The engine cowl can be either fibreglass or aluminium. Aircraft grade alloy 2024 T3 is used for skin panels.

Treatment
All mating surfaces of pre-assembled parts of the Kit are etch primed.

Building Time
Supermarine Aircraft’s Spitfire is the world’s first aluminium kit Spitfire. The kit is currently only sold in a Fast build option. The Airframe components are jig assembled in the factory with over 700 hours of construction prior to shipping. This reduces the kits build time to between approximately1000-1200 hours work for the builder.