Supermarine Attacker
 

Looking for anyone who flew the Attacker during it's Royal Navy service. This is the final type outstanding in my search for people who flew all the FAA fixed-wing types post-war for a new series of books.
Thanks in anticipation!

'Baay' (Barry) was a real lounge lizard who used to drink in our local Somerset pub in the 1970s. Ex-FAA, buggers grips, cravat and blazer with rather an affected manner which he assumed would endear him to the laydeeez…

But his tale of flying an Attacker was quite amusing: "Eh was right overhead London one night when the dem engine flamed out and wouldn't relight. So eh managed to make it to Ford and landed orff a glide approach. Then to the wardroom for a stiffener or two!"

With Spitfire wings, well, from the Spiteful to be absolutely correct. Was called the Jet Spiteful originally.

"Bugger's grips!" I have not heard of them in 60 years, but the last time was a Commander F......... RN {Rtd] who had a senior post in Met Oceanography and was i/c the Nautical branch [why we duplicated the Navy nobody told me]. His bugger's grips were magnificent, you could swing off them, but he was a creature of icy menace to youngsters so we avoided taking the proverbial.

Whereas taches, beards, stubble and the rest are commonplace, how many grips do we see in a year?. I am sure that I would notice, even if only to compare with the late Commander.

As for the Attacker, it was an ugly beast, unlike the Sea Hawk [much as Swift versus Hunter, obviously].

I believe the Swift was pretty much a swept wing Attacker with a training wheel and presumably a bigger engine wasn't it?

I recall clearly the Attacker at Sanderling, in the latter years it was gate guard at the Inchinnan \Abbotsinch Road gate and I think it spent its last few years mounted on a pole. I saw a lot of things fly into or from Abbotsinch; including Gannets being towed in convoy through the streets of Paisley; but can not recall ever seeing an Attacker airborne.

YS

I have obviously led a sheltered life and had never heard of them, so goggled it .. and the results were predictable and worrying in equal measure.

If I tried swinging off my nearest and dearest's "bugger's grips" then I would not be long for this world

Sadly the truly distinguished gentleman concerned is no longer with us, but here's a fine nautical example for your delectation - and of course to preserve you from the wrath of your current next of kin....

https://uboat.net/allies/commanders/83.html

Jack

My Dad remembers watching one make a crash landing at Culdrose in 1952 (I think)... it had a fuel problem I believe and landed very short of runway 30, actually touching down on the other side of the road that then bi-sected CU. It went through a fence, slid across the road (there was a aluminium skid mark for many years on the road) and was arrested by the fence on the other side of the road. Pilot got out OK ('Boots' Nethersole I think) and a small fire started that my Dad helped to extinguish (he was only a 16 year old 'spotter' at the time!)

Interesting times back then...

Thanks all, sitting on one and seeing one crash is getting closer to what I need.....

I can remember a family holiday on Hayling Island in the early 1950s watching Attackers attacking targets moored offshore,I can't remember if they were using guns,rockets or bombs.

Great stuff here. By the way did you get a pilot's view of that other wonderful fighter, the Westland Wyvern?

Yes I did, courtesy of Bob Edward. Here is some of what he had to say about it:

“The aircraft was a delight to fly unless something went wrong, when it could be a very dangerous beast. Although often described as a fighter it was not one. Yes, it was armed with four 20 mm cannon sited in the wings, with 600 rounds per minute rates of fire and so was not defenceless in the air. It was very much an air to service weapon of war. It was not an aerobatic aircraft, was assessed as not being recoverable from a spin but was a beautifully steady weapon delivery platform. The cockpit was roomy, allowing plenty of room for re-folding maps, using hand-held navigation aids etc. There was even a flexible tube that could be used to urinate – I never heard that anyone used it."

King 2*** me too, Bracklesham Bay 1953 (watched coronation on tiny TV in the village hall) but best bit was watching the aircraft presumably from Ford bombing, rocketing and cannon firing at the target wrecks off shore

In a simlar way to the Hunter being a swept wing Seahawk - it was a progressive development through a series of intermediate designs

Yes the Type 510 experimental prototype was the arguably main "intermediate" design - it had the swept wing but retained the Attacker's tail-wheel, whereas the Swift got a nosewheel.

I wonder if he also mentioned the policy whereby the bridge island used to be cleared of goofers because of concern over Wyvern propellers contacting the flight deck after engaging a wire and spraying shrapnel-like splinters in all directions.

Jack

I did see a suggestion that the Seahawk evolved from the Sea Fury in much the same way. With an intermediate design having Fury wings.

Union Jack, yes, he did say that about the danger from prop shrapnel.

My only photo of an Attacker was taken at the 1954 ROC "Recognition Day" at Biggin Hill. The Attacker came from RNAS Ford (I think).
Coincidentally I also took a photo of one of the first Swifts at the same event. This was a 56 Sqn (Waterbeach) based aircraft.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmf...32921718d5.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmf...3b4d5cf0ff.jpg
From my notes.

Yes, I recall seeing that in Tony Buttler's Secret projects book - so you can draw a line of progressive descent form the Hawker biplanes of the 20s and 30s to the Hunter through a process of incremental design changes.