Download or read book The Fleet Air Arm and Royal Naval Air Service in 100 Objects written by David Morris and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delving in to the official archives of the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the wider National Museum of the Royal Navy, David Morris tells their incredible story through a selection of significant objects.
Download or read book British Naval Aviation written by Dr Tim Benbow and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-07-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1909 the British Admiralty placed an order for a rigid airship, marking the beginning of the Royal Navy's involvement with airpower. This collection charts the Navy's involvement with aviation over the following century, and the ways in which its rapid expansion and evolution radically altered the nature of maritime power and naval strategy. Drawing on much new historical research, the collection takes a broadly chronological approach which allows a scholarly examination of key themes from across the history of British naval aviation. The subjects tackled include long-standing controversies over the control of naval air power, crucial turning points within British defence policy and strategy, the role of naval aviation in limited war, and discussion of campaigns - such the contribution of the Fleet Air Arm in the Mediterranean and Pacific theatres of the Second World War - that have hitherto received relatively little attention. The collection concludes with a discussion of recent debates surrounding the Royal Navy's acquisition of a new generation of carriers, setting the arguments within an historical context. Taken as a whole the volume offers fascinating insights into the development of a key aspect of naval power as well as shedding new light on one of the most important aspects of Britain's defence policy and military history. By simultaneous addressing historical and current political debates, it is sure to find a ready audience and stimulate further discussion.
Download or read book The RAF in 100 Objects written by Peter Jacobs and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2017-10-09 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was in the closing year of the First World War, on 1 April 1918, that the Royal Air Force was born from the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. Since then, the RAF has helped lead the world in the development of aviation and air warfare. From the fighters and bombers of the Second World War, through the early jet age and into modern remotely piloted air systems, the last hundred years' development has been astronomical, and the human story no less impressive. Here Peter Jacobs gathers the most poignant objects of the RAF's proud history and displays them together, in full splendid colour, for the first time. Aircraft, memorials, uniforms, equipment, and some items you would never expect – it's all here, ready to be explored.
Download or read book Inquiry Into Operations of the United States Air Services written by United States. Congress. House. Select Committee of Inquiry into Operations of the United States Air Services and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 1508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of Aviation at Brooklands in 100 Objects written by Nigel Spooner and published by Air World. This book was released on 2024-06-30 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the dawn of the twentieth century mankind had not yet achieved powered flight. The main motive power then was provided by steam engines – heavy, dirty and inefficient. If one wanted to travel ‘over seas’ one had to travel on them. A journey from London to New York, by steam-driven train and ship, took more than 6 days. By the time the same century drew to a close in December 1999, air travel was the normal choice for long journeys. Millions of people every day flew comfortably and safely in pressurised aluminium airliners propelled by simple, clean and efficient gas turbine engines. The same journey from London to New York could be achieved at supersonic speed in less than 6 hours. For much of that century, many of the extraordinary developments that moved aviation from fragile wood and fabric biplanes to supersonic transports were achieved on 330 acres of low-lying former estate farmland in Surrey, England. The estate was called Brooklands. Those marshy acres were transformed from 1907 into the world’s first custom-built motor-racing circuit, then a rapidly developing aerodrome, and finally one of the country’s largest aircraft factories, employing tens of thousands of people. Nearly 19,000 aircraft of many different types were built at Brooklands during nine decades of peace and war. By the 1980s however it was being eclipsed by larger manufacturing sites elsewhere, with longer runways and better communications links; its owner, by then called British Aerospace, finally closed the factory in 1989. This book tells the history of those amazing developments through 100 of the key aircraft, engines, places and other objects that can still be seen, either in or near Brooklands Museum or in other locations around the country. It also highlights the stories of six designers whose inspiring creativity produced aircraft, engines and weapons ranging from Camel to Concorde, Fury to Harrier, Wellington to Viscount, Merlin to Olympus. Between them, Thomas Sopwith, Barnes Wallis, Rex Pierson, Sydney Camm, Stanley Hooker and George Edwards were responsible for much of what was designed, built and flown, not only at Brooklands but elsewhere too. The book is arranged in successive historical episodes but the many links between the objects and the designers should allow readers to follow different paths if they so wish. It is not intended as a technical reference but rather to inspire the reader to seek out the objects and discover more about them.
Download or read book The Royal Navy s Air Service in the Great War written by David Hobbs and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a few short years after 1914 the Royal Navy practically invented naval air warfare, not only producing the first effective aircraft carriers, but also pioneering most of the techniques and tactics that made naval air power a reality. By 1918 the RN was so far ahead of other navies that a US Navy observer sent to study the British use of aircraft at sea concluded that any discussion of the subject must first consider their methods. Indeed, by the time the war ended the RN was training for a carrier-borne attack by torpedo-bombers on the German fleet in its bases over two decades before the first successful employment of this tactic, against the Italians at Taranto.Following two previously well-received histories of British naval aviation, David Hobbs here turns his attention to the operational and technical achievements of the Royal Naval Air Service, both at sea and ashore, from 1914 to 1918. Detailed explanations of operations, the technology that underpinned them and the people who carried them out bring into sharp focus a revolutionary period of development that changed naval warfare forever. Controversially, the RNAS was subsumed into the newly created Royal Air Force in 1918, so as the centenary of its extinction approaches, this book is a timely reminder of its true significance.
Download or read book Air Power in the Falklands Conflict written by John Shields and published by Air World. This book was released on 2021-11-24 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Royal Air Force veteran of the Falklands Conflict presents a comprehensive, myth-busting study of the air campaign. In the spring of 1982, Argentina and the UK engaged in tense combat over control of the Falkland Islands. The ten weeks of fighting are often portrayed with a decidedly one-sided narrative: either heroic Argentine pilots relentlessly pressing home their attacks, or the Sea Harrier force utterly dominating its Argentine enemies. In Air Power in the Falklands Conflict, RAF veteran John Shields presents a detailed and even-handed analysis of the Falkland Islands air war. As an RAF officer, John Shields spent two and a half years in the Falklands as an air defense navigator. Using recently released primary source material, Shields looks at the air campaign at the operational level. He develops a considered view of what should have occurred, and contrasts it with what actually happened. In so doing, John Shields has produced a comprehensive account of the air campaign that has demolished many of the enduring myths of this Cold War conflict.
Download or read book In the Royal Air Service written by Harold Rosher and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Royal Navy Aces of World War 2 written by Andrew Thomas and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will detail the history and combat experiences of these forgotten pilots who operated in every theatre and every major conflict of the war. The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy served with distinction in every theatre of war throughout World War II. From its poorly equipped beginnings - it started the war with few suitable, modern, carrier-born fighters - to the final campaigns over the Japanese home islands, the FAA proved an effective fighting force wherever it went. FAA Pilots had the distinction of being responsible for both the first, and last, enemy aircraft to be shot down during the war. Featuring first hand accounts, combat reports, photographs from private collections and an array of colour plates depicting the range of profiles and symbolic markings that were used, this book will detail the history and combat experiences of these forgotten pilots who served with such distinction for the Allied cause.
Download or read book British Naval Aviation in World War II written by Gilbert S. Guinn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2007-07-20 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the outome of the Battle of the Atlantic from 1939 to 1945 depended Britain's survival in the midst of a global war. The need to control the sealanes to Britain was mirrored by a need to control the skies above. Carrier based aircraft and seaplanes would play an important role in defeating the German submarine menace and in combating her surface fleet. However, at the start of World War II Britain possessed neither the training or industrial establishment necessary to develop this arm of warfare. From 1940 onwards the United States provided answers to the problem firstly in the form of American built aircraft, then American built aircraft carriers and finally American trained pilots. Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm pilots were being trained in the United States under a scheme set up by the United States Navy as part of the Lend Lease agreement. In the safer skies over the United States American Navy pilots would train British aviation cadets how to fly and to fight. This process is examined from a variety of different perspectives including the military, diplomatic, educational and cultural. For many young British aviation cadets the journey across the Atlantic and across America was as surprising as it was lengthy. Many would find themselves caught up with issues such as segregation in the American South of which they had little understanding. The book is based on interviews and correspondence with hundreds of former cadets who trained in the United States in the 1940s together with material from the British and American archives.
Download or read book One Hundred Years of Air Power and Aviation written by Robin Higham and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this precise, interpretive and informative volume, Higham looks at everything from the roots of strategic bombing and tactical air power to the lessons learned and unlearned during the invasion of Ethiopia, the war in China and the Spanish Civil War. He also considers the problems posed by jet aircraft in Korea and the use of Patriot missiles in the Persian Gulf. He covers anti-guerrilla operations, doctrine, industrial activities and equipment, as well as the development of commercial airlines.
Download or read book Aeronautics written by and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Royal Navy in the Cold War Years 1966 1990 written by Edward Hampshire and published by Seaforth Publishing. This book was released on 2024-07-30 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the period covered by this new book the Royal Navy faced some of its greatest challenges, both at sea confronting the increasingly capable and impressive Soviet Navy, and on shore when it faced policy crises that threatened the survival of much of the fleet. During this remarkable period, the Navy had rarely been so focussed on a single theater of war – the Eastern Atlantic – but also rarely so politically vulnerable. The author sets out to analyze shadowing operations and confrontations at sea with Soviet ships and submarines; the Navy’s role in the enormous NATO and Warsaw Pact naval exercises that acted out potential war scenarios; individual operations from the Falklands and the 1990–91 Gulf War to the Beira and Armilla patrols; the development of advanced naval technologies to counter Soviet capabilities; policy-making controversies as the three services fought for resources – including the controversial 1981 Nott defense review; and what life was like in the Cold War navy for ratings and officers. The book, the first to cover this subject in depth for more than thirty years, will make use of the full range of archival sources that have been publicly available over the last two decades, but of which little use has been made by historians. This work is destined to become a definitive naval history of the period, and also provide a fascinating and gripping narrative of a navy under threat from many directions but which survived and eventually prospered, winning a remarkable victory in the far South Atlantic more than 7,000 miles from its expected battleground in the North Atlantic. Elegantly written for a wide audience, it will be a very significant volume for professional and enthusiast alike.
Download or read book Aerial Age Weekly written by and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 1218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Land Based Air Power or Aircraft Carriers written by Gjert Lage Dyndal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1960s - in the midst of its retreat from empire - the British government had to grapple with complex political and military problems in order to find a strategic defence policy that was both credible and affordable. Addressing what was perhaps the most contentious issue within those debates, this book charts the arguments that raged between supporters of a land based air power strategy, and those who favoured aircraft carriers. Drawing upon a wealth of previously classified documents, the book reveals how the Admiralty and Air Ministry became interlocked in a bitter political struggle over which of their military strategies could best meet Britain's future foreign policy challenges. Whilst the broad story of this inter-service rivalry is well known - the Air Force's proposal for a series of island based airfields, and the Navy championing of a small number of expensive but mobile aircraft carriers - the complexity and previous lack of archival sources means that it has, until now, only ever been partially researched and understood. Former studies have largely focused on the cancellation of the CVA-01 carrier programme, and offered little depth as regards the Royal Air Force perspectives. Given that this was a two-Service rivalry, which greatly influenced many aspects of British foreign and defence policy decisions of the period, this book presents an important and balanced overview of the complex issues involved. Through this historical study of the British debate about maritime air power and strategic alternatives in the 1960s, the detailed arguments used for and against both alternatives demonstrate clear relevance to both historical and contemporary conceptual debates on carrier forces and land-based air power. Both from military strategy and inter-service relationship perspectives, contemporary Britain and many other nations with maritime forces may learn much from this historical case.
Download or read book The Air Weapon written by Andrew G.B. Vallance and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Air power today dominates virtually all military operations, yet it remains the least well-understood form of armed force. Technical and tactical details of aviation forces are widely available, but few understand how such forces are best used in prosecuting defence and security policy. The Air Weapon seeks to address this deficiency by setting out the doctrines which guide the use of air power at the strategic and operational levels of war. It identifies what aviation forces can - and cannot - be used to achieve. It encompasses doctrines for war-fighting and also for war-prevention. And it suggests possible directions for future doctrinal development. Following a cohesive 'top-down' analytical path, the study deals with air power in the only viable way: as an integrated entity. The Air Weapon is perhaps the only all-encompassing high-level study of this critically important yet all-too-little-understood form of military power.
Download or read book Fleet Air Arm Boys written by Steve Bond and published by Grub Street Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helicopters have been going to sea with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm for over 70 years. Initially used for search and rescue (SAR) duties from aircraft carriers, the rapid development of both the helicopters and service experience resulted in them taking on the vital anti-submarine (and later anti-ship) attack roles. The 1956 Suez campaign saw the first operational use of Whirlwind helicopters for the insertion of troops by air into a battle zone, a capability which was expanded with more helicopters such as the Wessex, Sea King and today’s Merlin. Through their vital role in the 1960s Indonesian Confrontation, the Commando helicopter force became universally referred to as the ‘Junglies’. It is often said that if either of the 1982 Task Force aircraft carriers had been lost the Falklands War could not have been won. The same would surely have been true without helicopters. Their vital tasks, including inserting Special Forces behind enemy lines, protecting the Task Force from Exocet missile attack and recovering wounded troops whilst under enemy fire, are rightly hailed as being instrumental. At home, the essential SAR effort by both the Royal Navy and their RAF counterparts has resulted in incredible stories of saving lives against the odds. Royal Navy destroyers and frigates have also long since benefitted from having their own helicopter Flight aboard. Frequently operating in extremes of weather, flying a Wasp, Lynx or today’s Wildcat from and back to a heaving deck is every bit as risky as flying fixed-wing aircraft off the carriers of old. Once dismissed as a novelty, the helicopter has more than proved itself. Indeed, for ten years until the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, the Fleet Air Arm’s operational force was entirely rotary-wing. Today’s Merlins and Wildcats, with their dedicated aircrew, maintenance and support staff continue to demonstrate just how vital an asset the helicopter has become. Here are the words of the men and women themselves, skillfully brought to life by Steve Bond and profusely illustrated in color and b/w.
