Supermarine Sea King

The Supermarine Sea King was a British single-seat amphibious biplane fighter that Supermarine designed in 1919, developed from the Supermarine Baby and the Sea Lion I. The original Sea King was a pusher biplane powered by a 160 horsepower Beardmore engine, first flew in early 1920 and was shown by Supermarine at the 1920 Olympia Show in London, though what was exhibited was probably a modified Baby. In 1921 Supermarine's new chief designer Reginald Mitchell redesigned it, perhaps to meet an Air Ministry requirement for a fighter that could work from both an aircraft carrier and the water, and with a 300 horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8 engine it became the Sea King II, which first flew in December 1921. It handled well but was not chosen for production. Mitchell rebuilt it with a Napier Lion engine as the Sea Lion II, which won the 1922 Schneider Trophy.