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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0754.PDF
20 April 1951 Lost of the piston-engined Naval fighter jDombers is the highly versatile Hawker Sea FuryF.&.ll, powered with a Bri Fighters IN the First World War Naval fighters ranged from the willing little Sopwith Baby floatplanes and Pup, Triplane and Camel landplanes to the big flying-boats which, bristling with Lewis guns, swept far over the North Sea in search of trouble. Unique circumstances attended the use of the Sopwith Triplane by R.N.A.S. squadrons. Originally these had French Spads, but Spads were coveted by R.F.C. squadrons, themselves equipped with the "Tripes"; so a straight "swop" was arranged to the satisfaction of all con- cerned—except the German pilots, many of whom fell to the guns of the astonishingly manoeuvrable and fast-climbing Triplanes of the R.N.A.S. Even when the Bentley-engined Camel became available the Naval pilots were dubious about giving up their beloved three-wingers. A little-known pro- totype Zeppelin-destroyer—the massive Supermarine Night- hawk—was a multi-seater, cannon-armed, quadruplane!'; the same company (later responsible for the Seafire and Attacker) also developed some remarkable little single- seater flying-boats capable of performing all normal aero- batics. The Kitten biplanes, built at Grain and Eastchurch, were probably the smallest and lightest fighters ever built. After the war the Gloster company turned out some in- teresting and efficient Naval machines, including the Mars IV (Sparrowhawk), with hydrovane undercarriage to facili- tate "ditching," and, later, the Gambet for the Japanese Navy. Later still they built the Sea Gladiator; the immortal Faith, Hope and Charity, defenders of Malta, were of this type. Hawkers produced the Hoopoe and Nimrod and the two-seater Osprey; Faireys developed various marks of Fly- catcher, the Firefly (biplane), and Fleetwing; Shorts the Gurnard; Blackburns the Nautilus; Parnalls the Plover and Pipit; Avros the Avocet; and Vickers, various types of bi- On the right is seen one of the first series of deck landings by a swept- wingjet fighter. The aircraft was the experimental Supermarine 510. The two-seater radar-equipped de Havilland Sea Hornet N^Fjl (below) will be superseded by the jet-propelled Venom of theAOtKema' •^Flif ht " photograph The Vickers-Supermarine Seafire (a Mk 46 is depl in service with R.N.V.R. squadrons. The engine is a Rolls-Rayce 0
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