Seafire
My father was an engine fitter on Seafires with HMS Unicorn at Salerno; although 897NAS claimed four German aircraft, after four days they were down from around thirty aircraft to half a dozen, all through deck landing accidents – simple lack of Wind Over Deck, even when the ship was going flat out.
An answer to this was later come up with – it’s called the Harrier !
The Seafire simply had too weak & narrow-track undercarriage, plus had a nasty habit of breaking it’s back on severe hook arrests.
The previous comment about ‘pecking’ is valid too; the Merlin had a weak point in the bevel gearing.
I have often wondered why the Hurricane was not used more; might be a bit slower but surely more suitable for lightly trained service pilots on a moving deck?!
I am certainly not a Test Pilot, but I always got the impression ‘Winkle’ Brown was using his superior skills to do what was just about possible, rather than the later creed of TP who had the standard service pilot in mind – an example being judging the Corsair fine for carrier use, when even the US Marines had said “ sod that ! ”
Dad went onto Hellcats in the Pacific, obviously a far better carrier plane than the Seafire; though he reckons the later Mk9’s did well considering.