Fairey Swordfish – fluke victor?
An acquaintance who has no small knowledge of military matters put the following to me recently: ‘We all have different perspectives and experiences and mine lead me to say this: […]
An acquaintance who has no small knowledge of military matters put the following to me recently: ‘We all have different perspectives and experiences and mine lead me to say this: […]
In 1917-18, a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft was developed for naval use, which successfully operated from one of the first aircraft carriers and saw service in a combat zone. Ninety-five years […]
The magazine adverts of the 1930s-40s provide a fascinating view of how naval aircraft manufacturers saw themselves, and wished others to see them. During this period, artwork in the aviation […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]