The Firefly was designed as a shipboard two-seat fighter and reconnaissance aircraft around the then new Rolls Royce Griffon engine by Herbert Chaplin and the prototype (Z1826) flew for the first time on 22 December 1941.

The Hunting Percival Jet Provost was developed as a private venture from the piston-engined Provost and was flown for the first time on 26 June 1954.