Another Navy Wings article...

[G-CPTN]

I remember the Dragonfly! Then the Sycamore.

[FD2]

Sadly, again, the Dragonfly was also American but the Sycamore was British Also, with land based machines, the Rotodyne and Belvedere were British. I guess you need an awful lot of money to design and build a large helicopter these days so co-operation with other countries seems to be needed to pay the bills. With modern technology leading to higher standards of airworthiness some of those designs might have done well.

[FD2]

Digby Cosh led 881 Squadron from HMS Furious in a multi-squadron attack on Tirpitz. These FAA attacks on Tirpitz were ineffective due to the amazing strength of the ship's upper deck and hull and would have been little more than suicidal. Cosh was eventually killed in a crash during a bombing exercise in June 1944 flying from Milfield. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152 ... _bell-cosh

His mother visited his grave after the War and paid for a stained glass window in St Gregory's which is dedicated to all the allied airmen who died while flying from Milfield. It's amazing what you might come across during a quiet Sunday drive.

Distinguished Service Cross
COSH, Digby Rex Bell, A/LCdr (P), RCNVR, Attack on Tirpitz

Issued: 24-Jun-1944, Canada Gazette

"For good service in attack on Tirpitz."

* Issued posthumously
Mentioned in Despatches
COSH, Digby Rex Bell, A/LCdr, RCNVR, 881 Sqd HMS Furious

Issued: 24-Jun-1944, Canada Gazette

"For courage, enterprise and skill in successful air operations from H.M. Ships Biter, Pursuer and Fencer against enemy aircraft."

* Issued posthumously

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152 ... _bell-cosh

The 'Beast' Tirpitz wasn't finished off until November 1944 when she was hit by at least two 'Tallboy' bombs dropped by Lancasters from 9 and 617 Squadrons.

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[FD2]

More about the 'Shortwing' Gannet story. A Dragonfly crashed trying to recover the wingtips.

School pupils research history of 1958 Royal Navy helicopter crash in NI
Published: 27 Dec 2022

School pupils research history of 1958 Royal Navy helicopter crash in Northern Ireland

https://www.fleetairarmoa.org/news/scho ... rash-in-ni

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[TheGreenAnger]

One wonders about the stall and flight handling characteristics of the short wing Gannett!

I assume the aircraft in question was undergoing maintenance or the pilot had just dinged the wing!

Edited - Read the article TGA!

[FD2]

I seem to remember reading an account of it years ago. He lost the ailerons as they were on the outer third wing section and he used yaw to turn and kept his airspeed a lot higher than normal. The inner two sections of the wings each have Fowler flaps.

Royal Australian Navy ASW Gannet wings folded showing ailerons and flaps:

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RN ASW Gannet converted for COD duties like C16 may have flown in - this one probably Station Flight Lossiemouth:

COD Gannet folded.png (297.25 KiB) Viewed 894 times

[TheGreenAnger]

The Gannett looks like a heavy beast. Short winged and yawing he would have needed to come in hot and fast. Enough to make any pilot a little pale!

One assumes that such a landing would not be possible on deck?

[Boac]

I suspect a landing would have been possibly 'possible', but stopping.....................

[TheGreenAnger]

All of which begs the question, did the Gannett have a bang seat for the bad off deck days?

[Boac]

Don't think so - 'assisted escape' system I think for underwater, otherwise stand up and dive.

[FD2]

Assuming there was no shore diversion available, even the barrier would have been risky at higher speed and never an attempt at an arrested landing, but both methods would rely on having normal flying controls available. As for how the three could try to jump out in turn with their parachutes, with three 'rudders' and an elevator behind them, I'll pass the method on to you fixed wing types! Last option ditching near a friendly grey ship.

[FD2]

A great photo from Navy Wings of a flock of Gannets on Eagle's deck. The COD is about to be launched from the waist catapult and the 849 Flight AEW looks to be being led the bow catapult. It's easier to see from this photo that the AEW version was a complete re-design from the old ASW one.

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[FD2]

https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?106586

Another great photo from 1971 of an 826 Squadron Sea King from HMS Eagle rescuing the crew of the US owned SS Steel Vendor, after its boilers failed and it ran aground on a reef near Spratly Island, about 700 miles south of Hong Kong. Eagle was in the South China Sea at the time and launched three Sea Kings to the rescue. Shortly after the master was lifted off his ship it broke up.

All concerned probably didn't know that Spratly and many other sand banks in the South China Sea had been sovereign Chinese territory for thousands of years and have now been converted into desirable holiday paradise islands.

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[TheGreenAnger]

Or so my childish mind might have thought when perusing this fine shot from this month's FlyPast Magazine originally taken in 1952.

With January 10, 2023, marking the 80th anniversary of Fairey’s gawky-looking Barracuda entering service with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm (FAA), FlyPast shares this stunning image of a 750 Naval Air Squadron machine carrying out a dummy attack on a submarine somewhere in the English Channel during September 1952. Despite the ‘Senior Service’ ordering more than 2,500
Barracudas (more than any type ever ordered by the Royal Navy) not a single complete example exists today. Like many aircraft that have been lost to the mists of time and war, scrapped or
relegated to fading pictures or mere memories, the Barracuda’s legacy now lives on solely through the efforts of a small team determined to prevent the type from becoming extinct. The
objective? To build a Barracuda. Dubbed the Fairey Barracuda Restoration Project and housed within the FAA Museum’s facility at its Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) home at Yeovilton in
Somerset, the plan is to use as much original material as possible. The parts have been salvaged from numerous Barracuda crash sites around the UK. The work is focused on the recovered nose, centre section and wing components from Mk.II DP872. Built under licence by Boulton Paul in 1943, the aircraft was lost with its three crew on August 28 the following year when it entered a spin and crashed into a bog near Enagh Lough, Waterside in Londonderry. It had been flying between RNAS Maydown in Ireland and East Haven in Scotland. For more information on the aircraft and the team’s work, see facebook.com/Fairey BarracudaDP872Rebuild

[TheGreenAnger]

How good or bad was the Barracuda?

Varying opinions from those who flew her her. Well worth watching this superb short documentary.

[TheGreenAnger]

The day that "Sharkey" Ward landed in Birmingham!

For an innocuous daytime chat show, it was an audacious bit of broadcasting. Mind you, Pebble Mill at One was always a quirky affair, and all the more memorable for it. It was 20 September 1979, and presenter Bob Hall declared, “Over the horizon we’re expecting the Royal Navy’s first Sea Harrier…”

Sure enough, as if on cue, it appeared above the Birmingham skyline. Sea Harrier FRS1 XZ451 hailed from 700A Naval Air Squadron, the Intensive Flying Trials Unit for the type, and at the controls was the commanding officer, Lt Cdr Nigel ‘Sharkey’ Ward. He’d taken off from Yeovilton just a quarter of an hour earlier. Approaching via a route carefully selected to cause minimum noise disturbance, as far as such things were possible in leafy Edgbaston — where the nearby nature centre had taken precautions to protect its more sensitive inhabitants — Ward slowed XZ451 into the hover. All the while he was in radio contact with 700A’s qualified flying instructor, RAF pilot Flt Lt ‘Bertie’ Penfold, positioned atop the Pebble Mill studios. Ward descended vertically to land on an aluminium pad, specially laid by a party of Royal Engineers on the BBC Social Club football pitch.

This brilliant publicity coup had been grasped by the Royal Navy after the RAF turned down the BBC’s request to bring a Harrier into Pebble Mill. What viewers didn’t know was that Ward’s landing had been pre-recorded, but his later take-off took place live on air. It was a potent demonstration of the unique capabilities afforded by the navy’s newest fighter, and in front of millions of viewers. You can’t buy PR like that. Not for the last time, it was an opportunity the air force missed.

‘The Mill’ welcomed quite a few flying visitors down the years — Sea King and Wessex helicopters, Ken Wallis in his Little Nellie autogyro, even parachutists and a hot-air balloon. But the first time it brought a Sea Harrier to a city centre surely outranks all of them.

https://www.key.aero/article/day-sea-ha ... m_campaign

[TheGreenAnger]

Another carrier based FAA aircraft.

[TheGreenAnger]

What an excellent series...




Every video in this channel is worth watching...


https://www.youtube.com/@ArmouredCarriers

[TheGreenAnger]

Another nice shot from last weeks Navy Wings newsletter!

HSP.JPG (47.2 KiB) Viewed 711 times

It looks like a Hunting Percival Sea Prince to me?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Prince

https://www.ulsteraviationsociety.org/p ... -prince-t1

[G-CPTN]

As a child with an interest in aviation (and aircraft manufacturers and models in particular) I was familiar with many brands no longer extant.

I wrote off to manufacturers worldwide and received photographs and/or banners that I archived into a 'portfolio' that I manufactured from a couple of 2ft x 3ft sheets of hardboard with sheets of card between.

Sadly, my mother disposed of this tome when I went off to university!