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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2313.PDF
NOVEMBER gTH, 1944 FLIGHT .i01 ^LEET AIR ARM EQUIPMENT to the basic idea oi reconnaissance from carriers. It was considered necessary for the recco- duty aircraft to have the means (either in extra speed or defence) to disengage from opposi**^ aircraft. Their primary duty was to send back accurate sighting reports to the surface ships. In pursuit of this policy a variant of the famous Hawker Hart was produced under the name of Hawker Osprey. The Osprey effected two improvements: it gave the recco aircraft an advance of at least 40 m.p.h. in speed, and economised in personnel by carrying only a pilot and observer instead of a crew of three. The Osprey was a satisfactory aircraft for its time ; but many moons were to pass before it was given a modern replacement, ilt must be remembered that up to the OH4tlfeak of war, and including such ships as the Pegasus, the Royal Navy had fewer than 10 aircraft carriers all told, and of these only the Ark .Royal was a modern ship. The Hawker Osprey carried a crew of two only, and had some 40 m.p.h- in speed over previous reconnaissance types. the first warship to be sunk by air attack in this war, a K-class cruiser believed to be the Koln or Konigsberg. The Roc embodied a power-operated rear gun turret of, the type used in the. Boulton-Paul Defiant, but h*5 not achieved the distinction of battle honours such as attained by the Defiant. The Skua was a passing phase and was not built in great quantity. Introducing the Fulmar The significant point is that ho direct successor to the Osprey two-seater reconnaissance-fighter was introduced for a long time. In the R.A.F. this type of aircraft was represented, and just before the war numerous squadrons were equipped with the Fairey Battle day and night bomber-fighter-reconnaissance monoplane. Scandinavian countries had a two-seater naval recce, aircraft in the Fairey P4/34, for the most part a variant of the Battle. When naval ideas resumed demands for a successor to the Osprey, these were met by the Fairey Fulmar, a direct derivative of the Battle atrtfthe P4/34. Introduction of the Fulmar, equipped with Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, was a notable advance in Fleet Air Arm " The excellent engineering feat of cutting the wings ol the Spitfire to make the complicated double-fold of the Seafire III seems all the more intricate on viewing the Firefly's wing-folding arrangement." To the Blackburn Skua fell the honour of shooting down the first German aircraft in this war (September 26th, 1939). In order to. simplify duty and yet retain so far as practicable all specialised characteristics, the operational squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm were broadly divided into torpedo craft or fighters. The Fairey Swordfish and Blackburn Shark emerge by 1936 as T.S.R. types, for torpedo-spotter-reconnaissance duty, but their chief work was as a torpedo-bomber striking force. In the fighter class we see the famous Glostei Gladiator (last of the biplane fighters in the R.A.F.) adapted to n*<aT deck-flying requirements under the name of Sea Gladiator. There was, however, one' diversion from the conception of two-type naval air arm, and that was the Blackburn Skua and its variant the Rcfc. The Skua rated as a naval fighter-dive bomber. In fact, the Skua shot down the first German aircraft at sea in this war (Sep tember 26th, 1939) and also sank with bombs
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