Seafire
We all know how good the Spitfire was, but at sea it was a very different proposition.
My father ( who retired as a trials crew-chief on experimental Harrier GR5's ) was an engine fitter on Seafires, first on the medium size HMS Unicorn, then on escort carriers Stalker & Khedive.
His photo albums are full of Seafires pranged attempting deck landings; the feeble, narrow track undercarriage was never designed with carrier operations in mind.
At Salerno, the Unicorn had to give her Spit Mk 9's to the escort carriers, as they were even worse off with shorter decks.
In exchange her squadrons ( 897, 809 + another beyond recall ) received clapped out Mk.5's.
There was no wind during the operation, and despite the carriers steaming flat out, after 2 days they had gone from around 30 to 6 operational aircraft, the rest bent on landing.
I asked Eric Winkle Brown why the hell they didn't use the Sea Hurricane, with its' wide track undercarriage, more ( dad feels the same ).
The answer was that it couldn't cope with the FW190; I have to say I'm dubious about this, though Winkle has forgotten more about flying than I could ever learn - at least the Hurricane might have been available to fly, not a mangled heap pushed to one side.
When the Seafire was replaced by the Hellcat, it was a revelation and a great success - you can guess which aircraft model has pride of place on dads' TV !