Contents Listing - Articles & Features in this issue
eginnings...and the Naval Wing RFC (1912-1914) The Royal Naval Air Service (1914-1918) Amalgamation (1918-1924) The Fleet Air Arm in the inter-war years (1924-1939) World War 2 (1939-1945) The post-war years (1945-1956) The modern era (1957-1980) Front cover, top: In this 40th anniversary year of one of the Fleet Air Arm's most epic feats, the attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto, the aircraft above all others which is most readily associated with the history of British naval aviation is the Fairey Swordfish. This airworthy veteran, LS326 a€ actually a Blackburn-built Mk II produced in 1943, is operated by the FAA Historic Aircraft Flight and painted in the markings of the aircraft flown by Lt-Cdr E. Esmonde VC, DSO, during another famous action in the naval air annals of WW2 a€" the strike against the German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the 'Channel Dash' of February 1942. Bottom: 1980 has seen the re-introduction into the Fleet Air Arm of fixed-wing airpower in the form of the BAe Sea Harrier FRS1. The first front-line squadron to form on the type is No 800 Squadron, four of whose aircraft are seen at RNAS Yeovilton.
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