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 […]
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 […]
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 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 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 […]
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 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 […]
Operating a radio in a naval aircraft at the beginning of the Second World War was no easy matter. Radio Telephony (‘R/T’) was a distant dream for naval aviators in […]
Today’s news stories about the Falklands have prompted me to create a quick ‘photo essay’ showing some of today’s versions of the materiel that was in action in the South […]
The vocal heat level around Falkland Islands sovereignty has definitely gone up in recent months. Tensions have been ratcheted up by various means: the refusal to allow cruise ships to […]
The Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, has amassed a huge amount of Barracuda wreckage over the years, in the hope of gathering enough to rebuild a full aircraft. A plan […]
On the 27th October 2011, The Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton announced that after many years it is preparing for the restoration of a Fairey Barracuda torpedo bomber. The […]
I heard today the sad news that former Fleet Air Arm pilot Derrick Edwards had died late last year. Derrick had flown a number of Fleet Air Arm types during […]
The Fleet Air Arm has been destined to repeat scenarios imposed upon it by others, several times. Before the First World War the nascent naval air service was absorbed into […]
Naval Air History is a blog about marine and maritime aviation through the ages as explored by journalist Matt Willis. Naval aviation has always presented unique problems which have been […]