The First Jet Carrier Landing – On This Day (or not?)
On this day in 1945, the first jet-powered landing on an aircraft carrier took place. Or did it? Ever since that time, there has been a debate over whether the […]
Category Archives: Prototypes
More forgotten naval prototypes – Vickers fighters
If you haven’t caught up with the latest Forgotten Naval Prototypes article on Global Maritime History yet, the link is here. This post covers the series of Vickers aircraft derived […]
Forgotten naval prototype aircraft
Matthew Willis is currently writing a series of blogposts for the Global Maritime History site about the weird, wonderful, and not-so-wonderful aircraft that were designed and tested for naval service […]
New series of blogs on Global Maritime History
The first of a series of new blogposts by Naval Air History author Matthew Willis was published today on the Global Maritime History site. The series takes a look at […]
Hawker’s Fastest Fury – LA610
On 21 February 1945, the first Hawker Sea Fury flew, marking a new chapter in what would become an illustrious career, highly successful in combat and the pinnacle of piston-engined […]
The first jet carrier landing
On 3 December 1945, Lieutenant Commander Eric Melrose ‘Winkle’ Brown (later Captain) made the first carrier landings and take-offs with a jet aircraft in history, when he flew de Havilland […]
Two (and a bit) new blogs on ‘Hush Kit’
Naval Air History has recently contributed to two pieces on Hush Kit, ‘the alternative aviation magazine’ The 11 Worst X-Planes When music is terrible the artist will often describe it […]
Captain Eric Brown – a personal reflection
There’s very little I can add to the many tributes to the incomparable Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, written by those far better placed than me to assess the great man’s […]
Fleet Air Arm twins, HMS Illustrious
The following series of photographs from the Dave Bull collection (see previous post for images of prototype naval aircraft) depicting postwar naval aircraft landing on aircraft carriers, believed to be […]
Prototypes and trials, HMS Illustrious
Naval Air History is very lucky to have been given access to Dave Bull’s wonderful collection of photographs of aircraft on HMS Illustrious in the late 1940s-early 1950s. The first […]
Naval Air History 