The Unsung Ark Royal
When the current HMS Ark Royal (R07) leaves Portsmouth early next year for a Turkish scrapyard, it mark only the second time in 99 years that there will not be […]
Author Archives: navalairhistory
A recipe for obsolescence? British naval torpedo bomber development in the 1930s
The Fleet Air Arm led developments in torpedo attack using landplanes flying from aircraft carriers between the two world wars. How is it then, that until the last two years […]
2012 Clacton Air Show
To accompany yesterday’s post on a brief history of seaside air shows, the following images were all taken at the first day of this year’s Clacton Air Show – one […]
Displaying aircraft over water
It isn’t just for operational reasons that aircraft fly over the sea. Throughout the history of air displays for leisure and marketing purposes, the sea has been found to make […]
The Spitfire’s struggle to go to sea
When the Spitfire finally went to sea in late 1942 it was in a great rush. This was all the more surprising since the idea of a carrier-based Spitfire dated […]
Supermarine Type 510 – The First of the Future
One of the catalogue of almost unremarked but nonetheless significant aviation ‘firsts’ in the postwar period was claimed by Supermarine, despite its star then being on the wane as an […]
British naval anti-aircraft weaponry – a brief history
With reference to the Explosion Museum of Naval Ordnance, Gosport All the photographs of preserved naval AA weapons below show items in the extensive collection of the Explosion Museum The […]
Black Thursday – a disastrous Fleet Air Arm raid
One of the most disastrous naval air strikes in the Fleet Air Arm’s history took place over the night of 12-13 June 1940. It was one of the many attempts […]
Three raids at the beginning of the end
In the Spring and Summer of 1944, the Royal Navy had begun to make its presence felt in the Far East. Forced out of the Pacific by overwhelming Japanese naval […]
The Flycatcher’s Rival – the Parnall Plover naval fighter
The Parnall Plover is a footnote in the Fleet Air Arm’s record. The Plover lost the competition to equip the FAA with a single-seat fighter to the Fairey Flycatcher, and […]
When God of Thunder became Mighty Hunter
The Avro Vulcan was a truly versatile aircraft, whether as a part of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, a conventional bomber at low and medium altitude and even as a tanker. However, […]
The birth of modern Air-Sea Rescue
The Air Sea Rescue service that saved so many airmen in the Second World War could be said to have its roots in the early 1930s, with the development of […]
The Worst Specification Ever?
The specifications N.8/39 and N.9/39 must quite possibly rate as the most convoluted in the history of naval aviation. These two ‘sister’ requirements for naval fighters were first discussed in […]
Flying boat ‘lighter stunts’
The UK’s new aircraft carriers are once again mired in controversy, with spiralling costs and disagreement over which landing/take-off concept should be applied. The chance that Britain may be moving […]
The Fulmar in army co-op service
The Fairey Fulmar was a two-seat fleet-fighter in use by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm between 1941 and 1945. It stood between the multi-role Blackburn Skua, which was quickly […]
Naval Air History 