The Supermarine Spitfire is undoubtedly the most famous British fighter of all time. It was the most important fighter for the whole of World War Two and reached a total production of 20.334 aircraft (and 2.556 Seafire's) The first prototype flew in March 1936 with a 738 kW Rolls Royce Merlin C engine and was taken into production soon after.

The first operational Spitfire was called Mk I, and was powered by the Rolls Royce Merlin II (768 kW), after this variant many more different Spitfires were produced, with a wide range of Rolls Royce Engines.