British Naval Aircraft since 1912
Last updated: 17.12.19
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Printed: 1978 Author: Owen Thetford
Publisher: Ltd. Putnam & Co. ISBN: 0370300211
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Publisher's blurb:
Produced as a companion volume to the author's classic work Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918, this book is also recognised as the standard reference on. the history of British naval aircraft. It describes and illustrates every aircraft ever flown by the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Naval Air Service and the Fleet Air Arm.
This new and extensively revised fourth edition contains well over 400 photographs and 120 three-view general arrangement drawings. In reviewing over seven decades of naval aviation, it ranges from the earliest Short and Sopwith seaplanes of the 1314-18 War through the classic inter-war biplanes such as the Flycatcher, the Ripon, the Shark, the Fairey IIIF, the Osprey and the Nimrod, to the Second World War Sworctfish, Barracuda, Albacore, Seafires and Fulmars, to the post-war Sea Fury, Firefly, Gannet, Sea Hawk, Scimitar and Sea Vixen. Classic American-supplied aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm such as the Wildcat, Hellcat and Avenger are also included.
The illustrated introduction is a useful potted history of the development of British naval aviation and the evolution of deck-flying from the earliest tentative experiments to such British inventions as the angled deck) steam catapults, mirror landing aids and, latest of all) the 'ski-jump' launching device for the latest Sea Harrier. Extensive appendices include lists of Fleet Air Arm squadrons and their equipment, ships carrying helicopters, lighter than-air aircraft (known as 'blimps') of the R.N.A.S. 1914-18 and the rigid airships R. 9 to R.34.
This latest edition includes full details of the latest Fleet Air Arm aircraft such as the Sea Harrier, the Lynx helicopter and the Gazelle.
Personal remarks:
As a former POREL who served on HMS Victorious during four commissions between 1959 and 1967, this book is of course a treasure. Sadly it also marked the end of the strike carrier in the Royal Navy. Generations of potential naval aviators will have passed before the next strike carrier will enter service, if it ever does, sometime around 2010.