aircraft kit manufacturer . for the british aircraft manufacturer see supermarine . supermarine aircraft industry aerospace headquarters cisco texas united states key people mike o sullivan ceo and founder john mccarron products aircraft kits website www.supermarineaircraft.com supermarine aircraft is a specialist aircraft kit manufacturer founded in brisbane australia and currently based in cisco texas united states . founded by mike o sullivan and his business partner john mccarron the company manufactures the supermarine spitfire mk 26 which is supplied in kit form and is the only all aluminium reproduction supermarine spitfire in production . the company slogan is the legend lives on . 1 2 contents 1 history 2 production models 3 fatal accidents controversy 4 move to usa 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit supermarine aircraft no connection to the original supermarine spitfire marque was founded in 1995 . 3 pilot and aviation engineer o sullivan who grew up on a cattle station in queensland had always wanted a spitfire and originally built one for his own use in 1991 which generated a lot of interest . after flying the 75 hp rotax powered prototype in 1994 he was joined by business partner mccarron to produce home assembly aircraft kits . 4 after experimenting with rotax engined prototypes they progressed to a jabiru engine and worked up from the 80 hp jabiru 2200 to a 100 hp version and the current 200 hp model . 4 after seven years of development the company was able to secure approval for the type in the uk . 5 the company now have supermarine aircraft approved and flying in many countries and have sold over 92 spitfires . 6 the aircraft was reviewed by the australian ultralight federation in 2001 . it was approved as meeting australian rules for kit built aircraft . 7 supermarine began promoting the kit plane to the us market in 2004 . 8 the aim was to produce an all australian aircraft but the constant speed four blade propeller is actually produced by a specialist firm in new zealand . 4 production models edit the result is the supermarine spitfire mk 26 which is supplied in kit form and is 80 % the size of the original and the supermarine spitfire mk 26b which is 90 % scale . 1 the spitfire kit is produced in aviation grade aluminium using the latest precision engineering computer controlled cnc router cutter to ensure accuracy and has the same power to weight ratio as the original . 6 a single seater was produced called the mk 25 . with electric landing gear and flaps early models were powered by an eight cylinder 200 hp jabiru engines made in australia . more recently the company has introduced a v6 isuzu engine conversion producing 260hp or 320hp with supercharger as well as a v8 auto conversion producing 430hp . 4 fatal accidents controversy edit in 2010 a mk26 80 % scale spitfire crashed at gympie airfield aus . the pilot as the only passenger in the aircraft died as a result of the accident . no official cause has been determined . however the coroner reported on december 29 2014 1 that michael o sullivan the ceo of supermarine pty ltd admitted that the aircraft test flight period had only been 20 hours instead of the 37.5 hours declared ; that he had knowingly falsified documents to achieve registration of his aircraft with ra aus recreational aviation australia rather than the more stringent registration with casa civil aviation safety authority ; and admitted to significantly understating the weight of the aircraft by about 200kg around half of the aircraft s stated empty weight of 401 kg . in 2013 a mk26 80 % scale spitfire crashed in adelaide aus . the pilot as the only passenger in the aircraft died as a result of the accident . official findings show pilot error as the main contributor of the accident however the atsb report http www.atsb.gov.au media 4548260 ao 2013 051 final.pdf stated the aircraft was prone to aerodynamically stall with little or no aerodynamic precursors and it was not fitted with a stall warning device increasing the risk of inadvertent stall . move to usa edit the company is now based in cisco texas . 9 see also edit supermarine supermarine spitfire mk 26 references edit a b supermarine aircraft . supermarine aircraft . retrieved 2009 08 17 . bayerl robby ; martin berkemeier ; et al world directory of leisure aviation 2011 12 page 121 . wdla uk lancaster uk 2011 . issn 1368 485x pilotfriend.com supermarine spitfire mk 26 retrieved 18 august 2009 a b c d supermarine spitfire mk 26 . retrieved 2009 08 17 . light aircraft association approved aircraft list retrieved 18 august 2009 a b reports & articles . national historical machinery association australia . retrieved 2009 08 17 . amateur built ultralight aircraft cao 95.55 para 1.5 major portion rule eligible aircraft kit listing pdf . australian ultralight federation . 2001 07 04 . retrieved 2009 08 18 . spitfire reborn as thoroughbred experimental . aero news network . 2004 04 16 . retrieved 2009 08 18 . a new generation of spitfires takes to the air . the telegraph . retrieved 11 july 2012 . external links edit supermarine spitfire mk 26 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title supermarine aircraft & oldid 741282974 categories aircraft manufacturers of australiahomebuilt aircraftmanufacturing companies based in brisbanemanufacturing companies based in texas navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 26 september 2016 at 14 40 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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