Wings over the fleet : British naval aircraft since 1945 /
"The Royal Navy emerged from the Second World War with the second largest fleet of aircraft carriers in the world and a year later had achieved the world’s first landing and take-off by a jet-powered aircraft from an aircraft carrier. The traditional roles of reconnaissance, aerial defence of t...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Manchester :
Crécy publishing,
2025.
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| Summary: | "The Royal Navy emerged from the Second World War with the second largest fleet of aircraft carriers in the world and a year later had achieved the world’s first landing and take-off by a jet-powered aircraft from an aircraft carrier. The traditional roles of reconnaissance, aerial defence of the fleet and attack were joined by anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. Technological advances in jet propulsion and helicopters offered new tactical possibilities, as well as new practical problems to be overcome to enable their operation from carriers.From the early 1950s the Fleet Air Arm operated a wide range of aircraft, from fighter-bombers, such as the Hawker Sea Hawk, to fully fledged nuclear-armed Blackburn Buccaneers and all-weather fighters like the de Havilland Sea Vixen and McDonnell Douglas F-4K Phantom. Westland’s family of anti-submarine helicopters, the Wasp, Wessex, Sea King and Lynx operated from a wide range of ships, ranging from small frigates to carrier decks. Defence cutbacks that saw the retirement of the fleet carriers and the transfer of the Phantoms and Buccaneers in 1978, but the British Aerospace Sea Harrier operating from smaller anti-submarine carriers maintained the Navy’s fixed-wing combat capability, this being memorably demonstrated in the South Atlantic in 1982. Today, the Royal Navy operates two modern carriers and shares the aviation commitment with the Royal Air Force, flying the most modern fighter in the world, the vertical take-off and landing capable Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning." |
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| Physical Description: | 400 pages : illustrations ; 31 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliography, glossary and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781800353343 1800353340 |