The proposed 1938-39 carrier fighter used a gull-wing layout and was designed from the outset for naval operations. The wartime Seafire instead adapted the Spitfire as a necessary expedient, with the limitations that such a conversion imposed. Carrier capability carries costs in strategic materials, maintenance, and airframe life that land-based air forces have little reason to accept. RAF aircraft did sometimes travel aboard Royal Navy carriers during withdrawals. That ferrying role restricted the carrier's own operations until the aircraft were unloaded.
Notable Point · 24:32-27:13
The purpose-built Seafire Britain considered before war
A prewar gull-wing carrier fighter and the later Spitfire conversion represented fundamentally different approaches to the Seafire requirement.