Despite the Royal Navy of Britain, the creation of naval aviation was not at all simple, having difficulties such as launching the plane at sea was an innovation, aircraft on the aircraft carrier deck would run into engineering problems unlike those taking flight from the land such as how to fit take-off and landing strips within an operation deck and also dealing with a salty environment. Home builds, imports and aircraft handed down from the RAF would all be used by Senior Service over the years but not all would stand the test of time.

A failure to equip could mean that naval aircraft that were either far too slow for many enemy types or ones suffering from mechanical, handling and inherent design weaknesses became far too dangerous as, a plane that might fly well enough from land may prove a disaster, if any slip, by any margin at all, occurs whilst trying to make a landing back onto a pitching and rolling ship.

These birds may have seen their share of bad service, but if you look between the lines, they really do tell the story of the very trying infancy of naval aviation and how quickly aircraft design advanced in the first half of the 20th century in how many ways could an aircraft be designed that was balanced about so many issues: weight, speed, gun and bomb load, range and suitability for carrier operating. They may have gotten the bad names of serious failings but they also did add to the hard knowledge necessary to forge naval aircraft that safely took us into later ages.

1. Parnall Peto

The Parnall Peto was developed to fill a very unique role, designed to serve as a scout to operate from the great M-Class M2. Designed to fit in to a waterproof hang at the front of the M2’s conning tower, and with folding wings and a smaller fuselage than necessary in normal use, there were only two airframes produced in this experimental operational role, The specification for the aircraft was laid down in British Air Ministry specification 16/24 during the early part of the 1920s calling for a reconnaissance aircraft which could be carried aboard a submarine.

Peto’s Specialised Design:

• Built for submarine reconnaissance
• Featured folding wings
• Stored inside watertight hangar
• Only two airframes constructed
• First flew in 1925

Despite their experimental nature, a Peto was inadvertently responsible for the loss of 60 men. While operating out of the M2 in the usual routine, the aircraft crew tried to make a very accelerated launch after surfacing from the water. The hangar doors had opened too early and a huge volume of water flooded the hangar, pulling both the M2 and the Peto, along with their crew of 60 men, to the seabed. This incident highlighted the significant danger of launching a plane from underwater, not only was there no aircraft carrier for the Peto to launch from, it was an extremely complicated operation involving just a small submarine and having to accommodate the compact Peto body with its foldaway wings so that it would fit inside the submarine.

2. Curtiss Seamew

Although many American aircraft found their way to the Fleet Air Arm, such as the Wildcat and Avenger the Curtiss Seamew was an uncomfortable aircraft for many. Britain was supposed to receive 250 machines but the Royal Navy had had enough after just 100 (requesting Vought Kingfishers instead) and 795 were produced in the US as they had spare factory capacity, the reason the plane ever saw production at all being that it was a good idea for an American observation floatplane and so was put into production! The first flight was made by a prototype on October 6th 1939.

Seamew’s Troubling Problems:

• Britain accepted only 100
• Fuel capacity limited take offs
• Ranger engine frequently failed
• Stability defects affected handling
• Further deliveries were rejected

Additional dangerous flaw found in the aircraft was the same test pilot, Lettice Curtiss: Certain attitude take-offs result in a total loss of aileron effectiveness and an unrecoverable situation. This handling flaw exacerbated existing performance and engine issues of the Seamew. The Curtiss SO3C Seamew was built by Curtiss-Wright to replace the Curtiss SOC Seagull in service. The US Navy’s request for this aircraft meant it was to operate from both ocean ships (using a single centre float) and land bases (by replacing the float with wheeled landing gear). The British Royal Navy kept the Curtiss designation, but named the SO3Cs it ordered “Seamew”. A total of 795 were produced, but Britain found it unsatisfactory enough to cancel the rest of its order and buy Vought Kingfishers instead. The Seamew went into service in 1942 and was retired by 1945.

3. Supermarine Seafire Mk XV

Adapted from the land-based Spitfire the Supermarine Seafire was not able to cope with the extreme physical demands of carrier landings. The Griffon powered Seafire Mk XV suffered a hazard of “swerving hard to port in take-off, at maximum reverse rudder.” In addition, the Seafire continued with an even lighter undercarriage oleo leg set-up which could not stand the strain of the extra weight and torque of the heavier engine compared to the earlier Merlin powered models and this problem got a lot more severe on an aircraft on a carrier’s deck.

Seafire Mk XV’s Carrier Challenges:

• Dangerous rightward take-off veering
• Full rudder could not compensate
• Undercarriage remained too light
• Increased torque worsened problems
• Carrier collisions became frequent

The undercarriage limitations further contributed to the problems encountered operating from deck. The lighter oleo legs failed to cope with the greater weight and torque when using the higher-powered Griffons, the aircraft bounding and lurching uncontrollably after landing and occasionally for the propeller tips to touch the deck. All these issues helped contribute to making the Seafire XV difficult and dangerous to operate off a carrier despite the pedigree of the Spitfire upon which it was based and airframes were quickly re-homed to Canadian and French air arms whom lost little time in replacing the airframe with a stronger one.

4. Westland Wyvern

The Westland Wyvern “rather more than nearly an all-round decent aircraft”, according to chief test pilot, Harald Penrose, suffered the indignity of a long development cycle and a rather unreliable power-plant. Conceived to take a 3,200hp Rolls-Royce Eagle piston engine, the program was forced into the, not so desirable, Python turboprop when piston engine cancellation hit. The engine’s low acceleration coupled with a tendency for flame-outs on catapult launches was the cause of numerous nightmares for an aircraft that required positive acceleration when launched from a deck.

Wyvern’s Development Difficulties:

• Original engine plans changed
• Python acceleration proved sluggish
• Catapult launches caused flameouts
• Earlier prototype performed better
• Development delays were lengthy

A number of technical difficulties attended the operating the heavy Wyvern from small 1950s carriers, the weight of the aircraft and the small and not very high power of the engine demanding great care from both the pilots and the carrier crew, and a substantial amount of loss of airframes had occurred over the course of the Wyvern’s life. A total of 127 production aircraft was delivered and out of that number 39 had crashed. Production versions were fitted with a turboprop motor turning large and peculiar contra-rotating propellers and were armed with aerial torpedoes. The Wyvern also enjoyed a unique place in aviation history through being the first successful underwater ejection from an aircraft.

5. Fairey Swordfish

How To Save Time, Fly Faster, Or Travel Cheaper with This Smart Tips and Tricks If you want to save time, fly faster or travel cheaper, here are smart Tips to Help you out as this book was written for any type of modern person. The Fairey Swordfish is one of the most celebrated planes in the history of naval aircraft: its bombs helped to damage Bismarck and initiated the attack on Taranto. Simple, efficient and easily piloted in fact excellent as a trainer the plane seemed an impossibly slow, slow, poorly manoeuvrable and, seemingly, unarmed vehicle to carry the air war into battle with rival machines much faster, modern planes like the Fairey Battle, and so on.

Swordfish’s Unexpected Strengths:

• Simple and reliable design
• Exceptionally slow aircraft
• Minimally manoeuvrable in combat
• Vulnerable against enemy fighters
• Effective under favourable conditions

Combat successes of the Swordfish were primarily in situations that didn’t include enemy fighter presence like night bombing, and daylight unescorted attacks. The success and almost mythical reputation of the aircraft was built from the incredible expertise and bravery of its aircrews as it met fighter defences, such as in day bombing on the operations at Taranto, Operation Cerberus 1942 resulting in an extreme amount of aircrew losses. Aircraft, from which many spectacular victories came to include the crippling of two and sinking of one Regia Marina battleship at Taranto and an attack that significantly crippled the German battleship Bismarck (eventually sunk by other fleet elements) were built to the number of 2,391 by both Fairey and Blackburn.

6. de Havilland Sea Vixen

Built as the de Havilland Sea Vixen for the RAF and RN from 1959 following 12 years design and development. She still retained a sting, for 38% of the 145 Sea Vixens produced were wrecked in accidents between the time of their introduction and withdrawal, and 50% of these fatal crashes led to the loss of 51 RN personnel including aircrew. An initial design request from 1947 invited a design for both types of service but the type crashed at Farnborough in 1952. The RAF chose the Gloster Javelin instead, and de Havilland modified their design to become a 2-seater nasalised DH.116 ‘Super Venom’ fighter for the RN but it arrived 11 years late and the long design led to a career heavily influenced by air accidents.

Sea Vixen’s Troubled Record:

• Development lasted twelve years
• Accident losses reached 38 percent
• Many incidents proved fatal
• Delays hurt its competitiveness
• Retired from service in 1972

The Sea Vixen was an ambitious twin engine, twin boom tail British naval air defence fighter aircraft with accommodation for a crew of two and was flown from aircraft carriers between the 1950s and the early 1970s, initially by the Fleet Air Arm. It was the world’s first two-seat supersonic military aircraft, although not in level flight. In service it flew from British carriers during the war over Tanganyika, then as part of the Aden Emergency in Yemen. By the time it eventually entered service, delays in its development had meant that much more advanced aircraft from the United States had appeared; the F-8 Crusader flew almost twice as fast with half the thrust of the Sea Vixen. It was replaced in 1972 by American-built FGR.1 Phantom interceptors. Hence the Sea Vixen had a career that featured nasalisation, a very long gestation, a fairly high accident rate and quite a bit of real fighting, followed by being seen off by foreign technology.

7. Blackburn Firebrand

For all its aesthetic appeal the Blackburn Firebrand, due to an almost violent tendency toward instability and deadly stalling characteristics, established a reputation as being what is termed a ‘pilot-killer’ in its service career. Though its design was first laid down in 1939, it made its first flight in 1942 and was delivered to an operational squadron only when World War Two had ended. Handling characteristics so unforgiving led the Navy authorities, amongst other strict operating restrictions; to forbid its use with externally mounted fuel tanks, The approach taken by those in charge wasn’t toward fixing the airframe’s structural faults, but towards “whipping pilots” to stop them saying its performance wasn’t up to scratch.

Firebrand’s Dangerous Reputation:

• Severe flight instability developed
• Stalling tendencies proved lethal
• External fuel tanks were banned
• Development was exceptionally slow
• Service ended in 1953

Well-known test pilot Eric “Winkle” Brown was equally scathing; to his eyes the Fairey Firebrand “was an absolute failure” and “it just could not operate reasonably as a torpedo bomber or fighter”. Although such criticisms might indicate a relatively brief service career it was actually until 1953 that the type was removed from the Royal Navy’s service. Delays had hampered development considerably; the first production machine did not fly until 1946 and just over 200 were delivered before production ceased and the Firebrand was no longer needed at the front line. Fairey’s last single-seat aircraft was manufactured by Blackburn Aircraft (although their other development aircraft are quite varied) and took to the air for the first time on 27 Feb 1942.

8. Blackburn Roc

The Blackburn Roc originated from the 1930’s obsession with turret fighters, using a well below average ‘Skua’ as a base in an effort to provide greater defensive fire power by using a large rotating gun turret. However, adding one thousand weights of fire power and associated aircraft, which created a massive amount of drag, resulted in a maximum speed at sea-level of the pitiful 194 mph and left it unable to defend itself from anything Luftwaffe Fighter that knew its own weight! With no defensive weaponry of its own, this aircraft was quite simply hopeless in its designated role as a fighter, and its poor handling attributes were further illustrated when the officer commanding 803 Squadron, (the only RN squadron to be equipped with the ‘Roc’) reported it as being, “a constant hindrance.

Roc’s Major Weaknesses:

• One-ton turret created drag
• Maximum speed remained sluggish
• No forward-firing guns
• Agility was extremely poor
• Fighters easily outperformed it

The Roc’s shortcomings meant it had only a limited career in front-line service. It participated in the Allied campaign in Norway, Operation Dynamo and Operation Aerial, but was quickly regarded as inferior to existing aircraft such as the Skua. Towards the end of 1940, the Roc was largely relegated to air-sea rescue and target-towing duties, with only sporadic engagements occurring afterwards. Remarkably, the aircraft recorded a single confirmed aerial victory before its retirement. On 28 May 1940, a Roc from 806 Naval Air Squadron, flown by Midshipman A. G. Day, shot down a Junkers Ju 88 bomber from below. The Ju 88 was capable of flying over 100 mph faster than its attacker, making the victory particularly notable.

9. Supermarine Scimitar

Designed by the immortal Joe Smith of Spitfire fame, no less, the Supermarine Scimitar had an attrition rate during its service life of a staggering 51 per cent. It was dictated by what we may assume were out-dated design requirements-the need for unaccelerated take-off from carriers-and accordingly the designer fitted an uncomfortably thick, overpowered wing. But, surprisingly, there was only one unassisted take-off, performed when it had been relieved of some of its weight during test conditions, so that the design was built around the needs of one function in which it used its design quite infrequently, and it had its first flight on 19 Jan 1956 and came into service in 1957, only being used by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm and so it was the last aircraft entirely designed and built by the Supermarine company.

Scimitar’s Operational Difficulties:

• Attrition rate reached 51 percent
• Wing reflected obsolete requirements
• One unassisted takeoff was attempted
• Maintenance demands were heavy
• Accidents caused serious losses

The Scimitar, which required a lot of maintenance and during a press demonstration had killed its first command commander, was an unfortunate one that never had a proper position amongst the Royal Navy’s air wing. Not as capable in a fight as the Sea Vixen nor as an airborne delivery system as the Buccaneer, the British navy boldly used the perilous jet plane on a nuclear delivery mission. In later life the type was used for aerial refuelling. Seventy-six were built and they were permanently retired in 1969 having seen service as a low-altitude strike aircraft and having been replaced in its role as a fighter even prior to its service introduction by such aircraft as the Sea Venom or Sea Vixen.

10. His Majesty’s Airship No. 1 ‘Mayfly’

The story of British naval air war began, perhaps comically, with His Majesty’s Airship No. 1. Affectionately nicknamed the ‘Mayfly’, it was commissioned in 1909 and was envisioned to provide the fleet with a ‘long-range scout’, a design based on the German Zeppelin. The 512-foot vessel would be capable of carrying a crew of twenty to a speed of 40 knots for 24 hours. The idea however got off the ground in some serious trouble with static trials showing just how over-engineered and heavy the airship had become. Some drastic ‘cuts’ to save weight were made – three tons were shaved off its structural weight by stripping away most of the water collection systems, nearly half of the control surfaces, and the external keel! All before the airship had flown a single leg of its ambitious quest as a carrier borne scout.

Mayfly’s Fatal Design Changes:

• Commissioned as long-range scout
• Vessel measured 156 metres
• Static trials revealed overweight
• Three tons of structure removed
• Airship never reached flight

Warnings by draftsman Hartley Pratt were disregarded after the structure showed failure if the keel removed, although he resigned from his post as design drew his concerns towards structural stability. His forewarnings came in quite when the airship was in transit from its shed on 24 Sep 1911. The structure snapped clean in half before the Mayfly had left the shed, despite the mild winds. The whole ambitious venture would be called to an end before it had been completed for its purpose as a long-range scout air ship. The project showed what difficulties faced British naval aviation from this period of early attempts. It contained ambitious aims in required duties; weight added and modifications rushed; warning signs ignored. From this point, the 156-metre-long German influenced Zeppelin styled scout airship was taken from its shed where it broke under minimal load, before it had even taken to the air.