FP: just how good, as a Co. were Supermarine. 1. Design; 2. Integrate and build; 3.Support. Sole BritAero firms to do all 3 well, concurrently, were DH/Dove and V-A/Viscount, hence their success. We have often enjoyed inspirational designers, incapable of grasping that their creations must be a) delivered, b) operated. See Halford at Napier.
The armourer Vickers in 1928 faced Conferences and Treaties intended to erode the capital ships business. Flying boats to bind Empire seemed the only steady military business, so they bought Supermarine, but ran it almost wholly divorced from Weybridge (to be Spitfire competed with Weybridge Venom). MD Sir R.Maclean could not believe his luck with an order in 1936 for 310 Spitfires and did cling to all the fabrication, while the good times were rolling. So few got built. He was fired in 1938, Sir Charles Craven came in from Main Board, organised sub-contracting and brought in the art of Production Engineering from Weybridge. He it was that eased Morris out of C.Bromwich, got V-A into S.Marston, and unloaded Seafire into Westland to liberate Joe Smith to do big- and Super-Spits. Supermarine as a discrete entity lapsed. After his death in 1944, failure of Attacker (design), Swift (support), Scimitar (integration) were due to acts or omissions at Vickers Ltd. Board level.