Editing Supermarine (section)

===Post World War I===

The signing of the armistice agreement, with little prospect of any military contracts for some time, led to the company diversifying by employing its woodworkers in constructing everything from toilet seats to wooden framed bodies for Ford Model T cars.{{sfn|Walpole|2004|p=12}}

At the end of the war Supermarine was the only British aircraft constructor dedicated to building flying boats and Scott-Paine still wished the company to continue in this specialist field. To this end Supermarine joined the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in late 1919 and purchased from the government about 16 surplus AD Flying boats and the two completed Supermarine Babys. Supermarine modified 10 of the AD Flying boats to produce the commercial "Type C" Channel flying boats. The reconfigured aircraft provided accommodation for a pilot and three passengers in three open cockpits. Once the ban on civilian flying was lifted in May 1919 the ten aircraft were registered in June 1919, with three being granted civil certificates of airworthiness at the end of July of that same year.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=21}} Services commenced in August from Southampton with typically three in service.

To pilot the commercial services Scott-Paine employed ex-RNAS pilots [[Henry Biard|Henri Biard]], Francis Bailey, Philip Brend. John Hoare, Basil Hobbs and Herbert Horsey.

Following the completion of his duties for the Royal Naval Air Service NZAS James Bird (1883–1946) was invited in 1919 by Scott-Paine to join Supermarine as a director. A qualified marine architect he had previously been supervising contracts being undertaken by various companies in the Solent area for the RNAS.<ref>{{cite web |title= Bird, Sir James | publisher= Sotonopedia |url= http://sotonopedia.wikidot.com/page-browse:bird-sir-james |access-date= 13 March 2018 }}</ref>

In the summer of 1919 William Hargreaves left to work for [[Vospers]] and later in the year Mitchell at the age of 24 was promoted to succeed him as chief designer.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=21}} In 1920, Mitchell's role was expanded to include that of chief engineer.  In 1927, he was offered and accepted a position on the board as Technical Director.{{sfn|Pegram|2016|p=96}}
Other than the income from operating commercial flights, the main income between 1919 and 1921 came from selling Channels with a modified design known as the Channel II being developed. As well as sales within Great Britain the company was able to sell 19 overseas, to customers including Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.
<!-- https://archive.org/details/aeroplan171919lond/page/352/mode/2up?q= personnel recruited after WW1-->