Fairey Barracuda progress
I visited the restoration of Fairey Barracuda DP872 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum last week, and saw the significant progress since I was there in July 2017. It’s fair […]
Tag Archives: fleet air arm
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 […]
Fleet Air Arm Veterans Honoured at Navy Wings event
On 21 September, twelve Fleet Air Arm veterans were honoured at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, at an event dedicated to the immortal Fairey Swordfish and the men and women […]
Long Live the ‘King
If all goes to plan on Wednesday 26 September, the last Westland Sea King helicopters in UK military service will make a farewell flight around the Devon-Cornwall peninsula, where the […]
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 […]
HMS Queen Elizabeth – more trials, fewer tribulations
The Royal Navy continues its preparations to bring the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers into service. Today, another major milestone was passed with the first refuelling at sea from one […]
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 […]
Navy Wings at Night – Part 2
I wouldn’t usually blog on the same subject twice in quick succession (See part 1 of Navy Wings At Night), but there’s a reason for a second post on the […]
Navy Wings at Night
The ‘Navy Wings’ charity, which supports the Royal Navy’s aviation heritage work, staged its first night photoshoot, arranged by Threshold Aero, on 26 October. The event marked the first time […]
Sixty seconds to save a Sea Fury
Sixty seconds was all Lieutenant Commander Chris Götke had to save a rare, important Hawker Sea Fury T.20 from destruction. Fortunately this highly experienced former test pilot was exactly the […]
The Fleet Air Arm in the Battle of Britain
The involvement of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm is relatively little known and while numerically small, had a significant impact on the Battle. Two squadrons of the Royal Navy’s […]
HMS Queen Elizabeth
At approximately seven o’clock on the morning of 16 August 2017, the Royal Navy’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, entered her home port of Portsmouth for the […]
The Fleet Air Arm over Dunkirk
The involvement of the RAF in the Dunkirk evacuations is well recognised now (even if it wasn’t at the time by those on the ground) – less well known is […]
New Fairey Flycatcher book published
My book on the Fairey Flycatcher published by MMP Books is now available. For more information and to buy, see the MMP site Reviews include: ‘Matthew Willis has delivered a […]
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 […]
