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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0696.PDF
1 h FLIGHT. MARCH 9, 1939 A COURAGEOUS CAMEO. A scene which may be wit nessed scores of times during a working day in Courageous nt The Work of H,M.S. "Courageous" in Preparing Pilots for the Naval Air Branch Illustrated with •• Flight' photographs TRAINING CARRIER THIS is an eventful period in the development ol British Naval Aviation. The Fleet Air Arm (soon to become the Naval Air Branch) is at a transitory stage, passing from the administration of the Air Ministry to that of the Admiralty. Complete control of the training of personnel is likely to be taken over on April 1. Meanwhile there is tremendous activity in the produc tion of specialised Fleet aircraft, carrier vessels and. of more immediate interest, pilots. At such a time, therefore. Flight considers itself fortu nate in having been represented on board H.M.S Courageous at the commencement of her current training programme in the North Sea. We found the drifter Halo—tender to Courageous— among the grey mysteries of Rosyth Dockyard. She was nestling against a jetty, from the heights of which we contemplated the descent to her homely deck. Up on the bridge with the officer in command (a Fleet Air Arm pilot, by the way) we shunted and churned our way out into the darkening Firth of Forth with an exquisite train of seagulls, their wings golden from our lights, undulating over our wake. The Forth Bridge soared above U3 and a toy train threaded its way through the triangulated girders as we nosed our way out through the boom defences. Courageous, having stayed out to sea rather longer than anticipated, was late at our rendezvous in Aberlady Bay and for nearly an hour we thumped farther and farther towards the open sea, the Sub-Lieutenant alternating between chart and binoculars. Then we spotted her, far away in the blackness. Just faint rows of lights which, as we drew nearer, revealed her vast bulk, her boats and guns, booms and chains, brass- work and Carley floats and a group of figures in the stern, where we drew alongside, staring in wonder at the tower ing grey steelwork above. Then we met that hospitality which can only be described as Naval, being characterised not only by its friendliness but by its uncompromising welcome into an aura of supreme tradition We were shepherded down a The take-off of a Fairey Swordfish T.S.R. biplane as seen from the bows of Courageous Actually this view was secured from the level of the old Jower flying deck which is no longer used.
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