The Royal Navy has taken aircraft into its service. This chapter describes some of the fighters used by the Fleet Air Arm in the 1930s
SILENT SERVICE GROWS WINGS. The Royal Navy employed [in 1936] five first-line aircraft carriers, and another was under construction. H.M.S. “Furious”, seen here from the air, carried three Fleet Air Arm squadrons, all composed of landplanes (that is, aeroplanes with a wheeled undercarriage), especially strengthened for landing on their floating home. The aircraft in flight over the ship are torpedo-bombers, which form one class of machine carried. The “Furious” also carries fighters and spotter-reconnaissance planes.
WITH its usual adaptability the Royal Navy has taken the air arm into its service. Aircraft carriers have been added to the Fleet, and the latest of these, the “Ark Royal”, bearing the name of the flagship that went out to fight the Armada in 1588, will hold about 60 aeroplanes. Cleverly, too, the Navy has adapted the catapult, used by the ancients for launching missiles, to the more modern task of launching aeroplanes.
The seagoing planes used in the world’s aerial armadas are of two kinds — those that take off from and alight on the water, such as float planes and flying boats; and those that are carried in ships and are catapulted or take off from and alight on prepared flying decks. In Great Britain the marine aircraft proper are the flying boats, and these are operated by the Royal Air Force. The deck flying machines form the equipment of the Fleet Air Arm and are operated jointly by the R.A.F. and the Navy. A link between the two extremes of the R.A.F. flying boats and the Fleet Air Arm aeroplanes is provided by the torpedo bombers. Three of the torpedo bomber squadrons are based ashore in the R.A.F. and three are in aircraft carriers with the Fleet Air Arm.
Probably the sea tradition has had something to do with the success which has attended British development of the flying boat, for it is directly descended from the ship. It has been well put that “the float plane is an aeroplane which can float, and the flying boat is a boat which can fly”. That distinction is observable throughout the development of both types of seaplane, and it is a distinction which has tended recently to become more marked. Today some of the latest flying boats seem to be ships in the first instance and aeroplanes only incidentally. Their large all-metal hulls resemble small destroyers in appearance, with their riveted metal plates, their portholes and their finely curving bows. Such accessories as anchors, drogues, ropes and boat-hooks are to be seen, and the living-quarters with their hammocks are planned upon ship lines.
The German Do.X. flying boat, of no less than 7,200 h.p. and with accommodation for 70 passengers, has been built and flown. The Aeronautical Research Committee has discussed with leading British manufacturers the building of a 200-ton flying boat, four times the size of the Do.X., and has found that no insuperable difficulties need be expected either in making or in flying such a machine.
THE FLEET AIR ARM PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART in modern naval exercises, and the aircraft and their crews must be kept on the alert, for surprise is the essence of successful attack. Fine team-work between the Navy and R.A.F.—both of whom supply officers for the naval air service—is everywhere apparent. Here Fairey III.F. spotter-reconnaissance planes are seen ranged on the deck of H.M.S. “Eagle”.
Obviously, formations of the larger types of flying boat are not likely to be seen for many years; but already the idea of a fleet of such machines is gaining ground, and squadrons composed of perhaps three large-size machines are in existence. In the biggest sizes the flying boats will play a part in their own sphere, resembling that played by the capital ships at sea. They will be normally attended by smaller craft and will form the foundations of the seagoing, aerial armadas of the future.
One of the machines which started the development of the section of the R.A.F. now devoted to flying boats was built at Felixstowe to the designs of Commander John C. Porte, the pioneer airman. A large Fairey flying boat was also built and flown; but the fleet conception may be said to have begun with the Supermarine “Southampton” in 1925. With two 470 h.p. Napier “Lion” engines, carrying a crew of five and with a loaded weight of 14,600 lb, the “Southampton” enabled genuine formation work to begin. It was a Flight of these boats that did the journey of 27,000 miles to India and Australia and back to Singapore in 1928.
The next notable step forward in R.A.F. flying boats was the Blackburn “Iris”. In its original form this aircraft was powered with three Rolls-Royce “Condor” engines, each of 670 h.p. Its loaded weight was not far short of double that of the “Southampton”, being 27,000 lb. It enjoyed a higher top speed, a range of 900 miles, and, in the larger hull, greatly improved accommodation for the crew. The interior of the hull was fitted with four bunks and contained, besides the fixed tables and seats for the navigator and wireless operator, a folding table and two chairs.
The “ Iris”, which seemed, when it first came out, to be a marked advance in the size of military marine aircraft, has since been overshadowed by several new flying boats. The Blackburn “Perth” was the first immediate development. It is a three-engined reconnaissance and patrol flying boat of 32,500 lb. It is 97 ft. in wing span and 25-J ft. high, and the engines are 825 h.p. Rolls-Royce “Buzzards”. This machine mounts a ij-lb. gun in the bow, a thing which places prophetic emphasis upon the resemblance to the naval vessel. The Short “Rangoon” is the type of flying boat used by the R.A.F. in the Persian Gulf and the Basra area. It has three Bristol “Jupiter” engines, its top speed is 120 m.p.h. and the crew numbers five.
THE SHORT SINGAPORE III OF 1934. This is a four-engined reconnaissance and coastal patrol flying boat. The span of the upper plane is 90 feet and that of the lower plane 76 feet. The length is 64 ft. 2 in., the height 23 ft. 7 in. and the wing area 1,834 square feet.
Biggest of all is the Short R6/28, known as the Short “Sarafand”. It is, at the moment, the largest military aircraft in the world and the second largest heavier-than-air flying machine in the world. It weighs 70,000 lb. (31 tons) and has six Rolls-Royce “Buzzard” engines with a total of 4,950 h.p. Other R.A.F. types which are, or have been, in fairly general use are the Supermarine “Scapa”, a twin Rolls-Royce “Kestrel” engined boat of 36,240 lb., and the Short “Singapore III”, with four Rolls-Royce “Kestrel” engines, which weighs 27,500 lb. This boat has a speed of 145 m.p.h. Mention must also be made of the relatively small Saro “Cloud”, used for training, and the large flying boat of the Saro type, the Saro A27, an open sea reconnaissance machine.
Flying-boat squadrons of the R.A.F. are based at Calshot, near Southampton, Mount Batten, Plymouth, Malta, Basra, Singapore, Felixstowe and Pembroke Dock. Their strength differs with the type of machine and their duties include coastal defence and reconnaissance.
Deck flying aeroplanes are directly descended from landplanes, though often they have slightly larger wings and therefore a slightly reduced landing speed. Their work is the supreme achievement in flying organization. No other aerial activity demands so exact and so carefully co-ordinated a system of organization, and to see a squadron of fighters leave a deck in quick succession, like peas from a pea-shooter, and then form up in the air and wheel about the carrier
which is steaming below, is one of the most thrilling spectacles provided by a modern air force.
Landing on is hardly less exciting. The aeroplanes come in over the stern, with very little interval between them, and sit down on the arrester gear. Their wings are folded and they are lowered in the lift with lightning rapidity. There is no room in any of these manoeuvres for the slightest mis-
timing or clumsiness in organization. Everything must work to fifths of a second if the carrier is to send its aeroplanes off and gather them again with the maximum rapidity and without undue risk.
The Royal Navy had begun work with aircraft as early as 1912, and by that year — a thing not now always remembered by those who write and speak of the Fleet Air Arm — aeroplanes were flown from a platform on the battleship H.M.S.“Hibernia”. In 1913 H.M.S. “Hermes”, originally a cruiser, was converted into the first aircraft carrier, but she was sunk by a German submarine in October, 1914. A little later the Grand Fleet Aircraft Committee recommended landplanes for anti-Zeppelin duties and the conversion of H.M.S. “Furious” as an aircraft carrier. In July, 1917, the “Furious” was commissioned with three seaplanes and five single-seater landplanes. From that time progress was relatively rapid.
CATAPULTING AN AMPHIBIAN. An interesting experiment carried out at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, was the catapulting of a small amphibian flying boat—the Vickers-Supermarine Seagull V—the first time that such a machine had been so launched. Such a combination, if sufficiently developed for practical naval work, would greatly widen the sphere of the spotting aeroplane’s activities. This shows the Seagull in position on the launching cradle.
By 1918 three carriers were in commission and arrangements had been made for the flying of landplanes from platforms erected on fighting ships. Later catapults were introduced, and today catapults for launching landplanes and seaplanes are fitted to a large number of ships. One submarine, the H.M.S. “M2”, was fitted with a catapult to be used for launching the small two-seater seaplane it carried. Night landings on decks were begun in 1927 and now form part of the regular training. The large carriers embark as many as fifty or sixty aeroplanes.
The five carriers of today [1936] are the “Furious”, the “Eagle”, the “Courageous”, the “Glorious” and the “Hermes”. The first four are all about the same size, 22,600 tons, but the “Hermes”, which was built specially as a carrier and took the name of the one sunk in 1914, is a good deal smaller. In 1935 a new carrier, the “Ark Royal”, was laid down; she will accommodate about sixty aeroplanes. She bears one of the most historic names in the British navy. In addition the Australian navy has a small carrier, the “Albatross”. Apart from the carriers about thirty British warships are fitted with catapults for launching aircraft.
Something may now be said about the technique of deck flying. The area of the flying deck varies with the individual craft; for taking off it is ample, but for landing it is only just large enough. The business of taking off and landing is aided by the movement of the ship. If the carrier, for instance, is steaming into a 30 m.p.h. headwind at a speed of 30 m.p.h. the effective “wind” into which the aeroplane will land is 60 m.p.h., and if its landing speed is 60 m.p.h. it should theoretically be able to alight without any forward run along the deck. Actually, certain difficulties arise. There are regions of disturbed air which have to be negotiated by the pilot, and the seizing of the aeroplane by the naval ratings when it has touched has to be considered, or else there would be risk of its “ballooning” off again.
When there is no wind, or when there is only a light breeze, there must be a considerable forward run after the wheels have touched, because no aircraft-carrier can steam at the landing speed of Fleet Air Arm types of aeroplane. So arrester gear has been devised for catching and holding the aeroplane and preventing it from going over the side. In the early days of deck flying some aeroplanes did go over the side and a proportion were lost, so that systems of wiring the deck, with cables running fore and aft and then across, were tried in conjunction with devices attached to the aeroplane for grasping the wires.
LANDING ON A CARRIER. A Hawker “Nimrod”, still in flying attitude, is being slowed up, as the cable tautens against the pull of built-in hydraulic mechanism and reduces the machine’s momentum.
These methods were afterwards abandoned by the British Fleet Air Arm in favour of a perfectly clear deck, with no arrester gear at all. Then the American Navy developed a form of arrester gear having wires stretched transversely across the ship. A hook on the aeroplane engaged these wires and collected an increasing number of them as it went along. Weights were attached to the ends of the wires and the collection of these had a strong but progressive braking effect. This system was developed and, instead of weights, various forms of hydraulic and friction mechanisms were tried, and today arrester gears working on this principle are standardized.
As the aeroplane is landing, men run out and grasp it and the wings are then folded. In addition to the main flying deck of aircraft-carriers, there is often a secondary flying deck from which single-seater fighters can take off, but upon which there is no scope for landings to be made. The types of aeroplane used, as has been mentioned, are mainly modified landplanes. The single-seater fighter used by the Fleet Air Arm, for instance, is the Hawker “Nimrod” (Rolls-Royce “Kestrel”), which is the same as the Hawker “Fury” with a larger wing area. Various kinds of torpedo carriers are used and, in addition, there is the special Fleet Air Arm type known as the Fleet spotter-reconnaissance aircraft used for gunnery observation and reconnaissance.
The standard torpedo bomber in the Fleet Air Arm is the Blackburn “Baffin”, which has a Bristol Pegasus engine and a speed of 136 m.p.h. It carries its torpedo slung under the centre line of the fuselage between the undercarriage “legs”. The Fleet spotter-reconnaissance type of aeroplane is usually flown as a three-seater. An example of this type of aeroplane is the Fairey “Swordfish”, which is fitted with a Bristol “Pegasus” engine. The Fairey “Seal” is another spotter-reconnaissance machine.
PATROLLING THE HIGH SEAS. The sturdy aircraft in this formation are Blackburn “Baffin” fleet torpedo bombers, powered by a single Bristol “Pegasus” engine. They belong to the Fleet Air Arm. Such formation flying is just as necessary at sea as over the land, if only for self-defence. When an aircraft-carrier docks, its “brood” is based on a land aerodrome, where training will be continued.
One of the less well-known problems of aircraft-carrier operation is the safe storage of the aeroplanes in the hangar below the flying deck. It is found in practice to be extraordinarily difficult to secure the machines so that they will not move about in the roughest weather and so that they do not break loose and dash against one another when the carrier is driving through heavy seas.
Aircraft carriers have frequently been criticized on account of their vulnerability to attack from both sea and air. They have also been criticized on the grounds that they hamper the commander of the Fleet, inasmuch as they are compelled to steam into wind when they are launching and gathering in their aeroplanes. Both criticisms have a certain validity. But, so far, no better method of providing air action for the Fleet has been devised than the landplane based in an aircraft carrier.
TORPEDOING FROM THE AIR. The pilot, sitting in the front cockpit of his Vickers “Vildebeest”, has just released his deadly missile, and his observer is anxiously watching as it falls nose foremost into the water.
Naval commanders realize that a Fleet equipped with aircraft is superior to one not so equipped; and, even if the carriers were only to be of value in a flat calm and in exceptionally favourable tactical conditions, they will still be a necessity. But in fact deck flying has been developed to the stage when it can be done with safety and certainty in fairly bad weather, and so the aircraft carrier seems to have securely established itself as a necessary adjunct to the Fleet.
It is conceivable that the very large flying boat may one day reduce the need for the aircraft carrier. But to do so it would have to possess such an enormous range and such a high degree of seaworthiness, that the day does not seem to be yet within sight. And if flying boats ever do arrive at the point where they can put to sea in any weather that a Fleet can put to sea in, and if they develop a range sufficient to allow them to work wherever a Fleet has to work, they will seemingly be in a position to supersede the Fleet. In that event — and the idea is not quite so fantastic as it seems at first sight — the Fleet of the future will be a fleet composed of a few aerial capital ships, in the form of immense flying boats of great range and carrying capacity, with a series of smaller flying boats stepped down to the craft carrying perhaps a crew of only half a dozen men and corresponding to the destroyer. But it seems unlikely to visualize a time when the single-seater fighter can either be dispensed with or be available as a flying boat, or even as a float seaplane. It could never be made seaworthy in that form owing to its small size, and its performance would be reduced by a float undercarriage.
Possibly one may visualize some kind of aerial aircraft carrier for such types. An aeroplane has been successfully taken up by another aeroplane and detached from it while in the air, and the Mayo composite aircraft, which has been ordered by Imperial Airways Ltd., uses the same idea, though for a different purpose.
It may be noted that already an autogiro has been landed on and taken off from an aircraft carrier with complete success at a large variety of different speeds, and it can even land on and take off from a ship lying at anchor. The autogiro is at present visualized as especially suitable for Fleet Air Arm work at night, but it might prove suitable also for day work, and then the course of events would most probably be sharply modified.
TO BE DROPPED LATER. Torpedo-dropping is a highly-specialized department of naval air work, and various types of aircraft, such as the Vickers “Vildebeest”, seen here, are expressly designed for such duties. The machine is strengthened to carry a torpedo of anything up to 1,700 lb. in weight and costing about £1,000. These mechanics are clamping an 18-in. Whitehead torpedo to the cradle between the undercarriage legs, which are wider apart than usual to allow the projectile to drop.
