FEATURES
Fairey III, durable and versatile. 100 years of RAF aircraft at sea By Kris Hendrix, Researcher at the Royal Air Force Museum London
On 15 January 2018 it will be 100 years ago that the first purpose-built aircraft carrier was laid down. It was the first carrier to display the classic silhouette and layout as seen on today’s designs such as the new Queen Elizabeth class. On 1April 1918 the air services of the Royal Navy and Army were amalgamated into the independent Royal Air Force. This meant that the aircraft on Royal Navy carriers belonged to the RAF though in close cooperation with the Navy, an arrangement which lasted until 1939 when these aircraft returned to the Admiralty’s control.
These first aircraft carriers carried small wooden biplanes with open cockpits, an unenviable configuration to fly over vast stretches of icy
water.They were similar to the landplanes of the RAF,albeit with the difference of folding wings (to reduce storage space in the hangar) and reinforced landing gears with arrestor hooks (to catch the cables laid down over the flight deck). Invariably,this added weight meant their performance was slightly inferior to that of their land based cousins. Conversely,their low speed and light weight meant they could take off
26 Envoy Winter 2017
from the flight deck without any sort of catapult system.
The advantage of carriers was that they enabled aircraft to attack targets too far away from land bases, allowing Britain to project its air power to all corners of the world. Their aircraft were designed to perform three main roles: aircraft interception, torpedo bombing and fleet reconnaissance. Fighter aircraft such as the Flycatcher would patrol the fleet, protecting it against enemy bombers. Torpedo bombers like the famous
Swordfish would attack enemy ships by launching heavy torpedoes at sea skimming altitude. Reconnaissance aircraft acted as the eyes of the fleet, enabling it to find enemy ships as well as locate shipwrecked people. An example of the latter type was the Fairey III, one of the most important aircraft of the interwar period. Some were still in service at the outbreak of World WarTwo. It could even swap its wheels for floats to operate from water.
The legendary Fairey Swordfish, slow and obsolescent, yet sturdy and easy to fly.
raf-ff.org.uk
©RAF Museum.
© RAF Museum.
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