Some of you might be interested in a couple of discussions over on ARRSE:
The first is about the development of the aircraft carrier in the First World War. Putting seaplanes into the water took time, and often damaged the aircraft on landing. Launching them from a flying off deck or from a platform on a ship's bow allowed aircraft to be launched rapidly, but recovering them aboard a moving ship proved to be very challenging. Initially the tried to use the same flying off deck that had been built on the forecastle of HMS
Furious, but it needed the aircraft to be pulled down and restrained. Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning did ;and aboard her in 1917, be he was killed in a repeat attempt. It has been shown that a landing deck was needed - so
Furious was refitted again Later work and trials on the Isle of Grain also developed arrestor equipment.
It was found that landing was very difficult, Despite this operational sorties were flown, and further experimentation at the
National Physics Laboratoryshowed that the bridge disrupted airflow. The solution was to have a flush deck - which HMS Argus had when she was commissioned just after the armistice.
The Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier - up to 1918
The second is about things still in living memory - the Second World War. What was a simple tribute to the Swordfish crews from 825 NAS who died during the 'Channel Dash', it soon turned a wider discussion of the aircraft carriers and the Fleet Air Arm from 1938 to 1945.Huge problems were caused by the was naval aviation had been largely under RAF control until 1937, as were things like aircraft procurement, weapon development, tactics, and training - lessons for today and the last decade or so?
Despite that our carriers operated in every theatre that the RN did, with escort carriers providing vital defence against enemy aircraft and U boats for the Atlantic and Arctic convoys, and carrerborne fighters and attack aircraft playing a vital role in the Mediterranean and later the Far East. There were things which seem familiar today, such as fighters being controlled by anti aircraft cruisers which would them shoot and enemy aircraft the fighters did not get.
Just as fighters being controlled by shipborne controllers via radio using radar information is in many ways similar to modern operations, the use of radar equipped Swordfish ahead of a convoy and being cued by ships proving long range detection with HF/DF (High Frequency Direction Finding) is not dissimilar to the ASW operations of today, with frigates providing long range detection and helicopters providing localisation and attack.
The Anniversary of The Channel Dash - 1942 - and the wider RN Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War