The Supermarine Spitfire and its naval counterpart, the Seafire, were in production for over ten years and during that time underwent many modifications and improvements. The evolution of the Rolls Royce engines that powered them was closely connected and drove much of the development. The exigencies of war meant that vital changes were rushed into production; for example the most numerous mark of Spitfire, the Mk IX, was created as a stop-gap for the MK VIII which arrived months later. Similar occurrences resulted in a bewildering and apparently disordered range of marks.
This site attempts to clarify the evolution of the Spitfire and Seafire; only the production marks are shown (with the exception of K5054) with the links between them representing their chronology.
Please refer to the "Sources" section for a list of the books and websites referenced in building this site.