Supermarine Spitfire T.9 TE308 ‘Grey Nurse’, Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar 1:72 Diecast Model Plane by Corgi

As one of the most successful fighter aircraft of the Second World War and one which was produced in huge numbers, it can be a little surprising to learn that the Supermarine Spitfire was not produced in a two seat training variant during the war, meaning that pilots converting to this awesome machine would be making their first flight in the Spitfire as their first solo. The Vickers Supermarine company did propose the development of a two seat variant of the Spitfire to Air Ministry officials as far back as 1941, but as there was no official support for the project at the time, they simply returned to further development of single engined fighters.

Once the war had ended, stories of unofficially modified two seat Spitfire projects started to circulate, with the ones produced by the Soviet Air Force being perhaps the most significant. Britain would eventually supply Russia with more than 1000 Spitfires and it was discovered that they actually converted several Spitfires to two seat configuration, however, rather than moving the front cockpit slightly forward as Vickers Supermarine would later do, the Russians elected to simply add a second cockpit behind the existing one, using a narrower section of the fuselage. Making these aircraft extremely distinctive, this also must have also created a rather claustrophobic working environment for the second pilot.