fleet air arm

Let us consider the following. Suppose that CVA-01 and her two sisters are built as originally planned*, entering service in, say, '72, '75 and '78 respectively. The CAG would have been, iirc, 36 jets, 18 Phantoms and 18 Buccaneers on each ship. Given that the FAA replaced these aircraft with...

One of the joys of this site is the quantity of info available on unbuilt aircraft projects. Particularly tantalising are the various projects in the 70s and 80s for a supersonic VSTOL to replace the Harrier. The Bae 1216 has been the best covered thanks to Michael Pryce. Various US designs...

The F4 Phantom might have failed to materialise as the wonderful plane which the RAF and RN used to fill various gaps from the 60s onwards. In a Phantomless world would P1154 have been developed as planned in 1963 for both RAF and RN or would the Lightning have been developed in its swing wing...

Think Defence have posted a couple of interesting articles lately, with great pictures, on the more unusual bases used for Harriers in the Falklands. http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2012/04/the-atlantic-conveyor-falklands30/...

The next PTP I am writing, on Harrier Projects, is about 50% written. It will feature some things already known about, but tell their full story, such as: as well as revealing wholly new stories, such as the full saga of the Harrier III, the proposed Sea Harrier FRS.3 and some weird and...

. I don't know where this really belongs (if at all) anyway, out of interest, Air Britain have (?) released a new book on RAF unmanned aircraft / target drones / recon drones called "Sitting Ducks and Peeping Toms" - I do NOT know if any projected models are included :-...

Anyone got anymore info on this pair. A 3-view of each would be really nice, but ain't holding my breath on that.

Greetings and salutations my friends. A friend told me the original plans for what became the Fairey Barracuda depicted an aircraft with a low wing similar to the Battle and Fulmar. This was before the suits demanded a shoulder high wing and the design was changed. Is this true or is my...

I’m particularly interested in the navigation and attack capabilities of the early Harriers, in particular Falklands era. However research on the net has only led to a partial understanding of this subject. It’s the same story with published works. I’m aware that some members of the forum are...

This YouTube video has some really good footage of Harriers, plus some other aircraft (Sea Vixens - yay!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjRdNwcWsZE I especially like the Sea Harrier in nuclear strike configuration (WE177 and tank) preparing to launch at 20:37 and the 'Captain Pugwash'...

On page 241 of "The Decline of British Seapower" by Desmond Wettern, the then Minister of Aviation (Julian Amery) told a Business Dinner on 9 September 1964 that the Government were considering building an ocean-going "hovership" for the RN. His Ministry and the MOD would make preliminary...

Who can flesh this lot out? 1954: Sperry/UK, licence from Sperry/US: intended for (to be) Blue Streak. Bracknell clean room. Abandoned for: 3/57: Elliott licence from Bosch Arma (ATLAS kit). Rochester clean room. B Streak died 13/4/60 but INS work continued for Blue Steel. 1957: Ferranti...

Hi all, I search for drawing of some Hawker fighter projects. Hope you can help: 1) Hawker Henley Escort fighter conversion 2) Hawker Henley Close Support Bomber 3) Hawker Typhoon with Turbo-Supercharger 4) Hawker Tempest with Bristol Centaurus 5) Hawker Tempest Mk.I with Sabre IV 6)...

Today it is 50 years since the first Hawker P.1127 hovered, on 21st of October 1960. Despite the recent news that the UK is retiring its fleet the US Marine Corps, Spanish Navy, Italian Navy and Indian Navy continue to operate it, and it is likely that the Harrier will still be in service for...

Found a couple of notes on Invincible class from my Aviation & Marine International magazine collection September 1979: April 1976:

Two artist's impressions of the Royal Navy's proposed future aircraft carrier (CVF) from 1999. These both show examples designed to operate STOVL aircraft. Source: http://navy-matters.beedall.com/cvf2.htm

Latest stories are that the entire RAF Tornado fleet may be retired. The £7.5bn 'saved' may help pay for a Trident replacement. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298871/RAF-Tornado-fleet-faces-axe-bid-save-7bn.html This is still speculative (the 'leak' was hardly an agreed policy...

We all know CVA-01 was scheduled to start building in 1966 and that F-4 Phantoms had been ordered as a stop gap replacement for the Sea Vixen following the cancellation of the Naval P1154. So if the fateful decision to cancel the CVA-01 and dispose of the fixed wing carrier fleet hadn't...

Having followed all the excellent threads on the CVA 01 and RN carrier aircraft saga I find myself wondering what would have happened if a smaller aicraft could have been designed. The RN tried to get carriers to operate the Phantom and Buccaneer combination. In doing so it limited its options...

Courtesy of the Warships One Forums. One of the nicer Ark videos I've seen http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1271-full.html#199354