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this is the Supermarine walrus a British
seaplane designed in the 1930s by this
time aviation was largely used at sea
and Great Britain continued an active
search for possibilities of further
application of aircraft aboard warships
cruisers and battleships needed to look
far over the horizon
reconnaissance is where it all begins
previously the best you could achieve
was climbing the rigging of an old ship
going up the mast looking from the
crow's nest and trying to look over the
horizon by 1908 1909 the Navy were using
kites and balloons to try and extend the
height of that crow's nest and that mast
further still with the arrival of the
aircraft it now gave them the
possibility not only to gain height and
look over the horizon but actually move
away from the ship and Rove around and
explore several miles away from the ship
and then bring back all of that
information all of that reconnaissance
information and use it for best tactical
advantage
even before World War one the British
Navy experimented with ground-based
aircraft in order to accommodate them
for use as ship-borne aviation aircraft
would take off from a basic takeoff
platform installed atop the bow gun
turret or forecastle they managed to
take off but until a certain time no one
was able to land an aircraft on a moving
ship squadron commander edwin Dunning
achieved this an August 1917 with an
experiment to see if he could land back
on to HMS fearest whilst furious was
moving it underway at sea to do this he
had to fly down the port side of the
ship past the superstructure past the
funnels past all of the mastic and at
the very last moment maneuver his
aircraft very dangerously in front of
the the the island and tower and drop it
onto the very short deck on the front of
the ship this was the very first time
that an aircraft had actually landed on
a ship moving at sea and it's made an
enormous step forward in the possibility
of creating what would become the
aircraft carrier
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however a manoeuvre like this was an
exception only the best pilots were able
to land their aircraft on a cruiser or
battleship for this reason in the first
20 years of the 20th century the role of
Naval Aviation was fulfilled by sea
planes equipped with floats allowing
them to land on water they were launched
from specially equipped vessels the
seaplane lighter was another key part of
carrier development the seaplane lighter
was a large steel hollow hold barge that
was originally designed to tow flying
boats many many miles further than their
flying range and of course extend their
flying distance they could be towed
behind a destroyer or a fast launch and
deliver that flying boat anywhere that
the Navy needed to operate it the Golden
Age of sea planes happened between the
two world wars in general aircraft
completed missions related to
reconnaissance or anti-submarine warfare
but soon it became obvious that they are
ideally suited for search and rescue
operations as well those tasks define
the development of sea planes what is
reconnaissance it's when the aircraft
should have a great range there were no
radios on board at that time the engine
became more powerful if floats were
enlarged and the overall quality as well
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it's little known but in the 1920s in
Europe and North America they organized
very efficient and well advertised
competitions between seaplanes
they competed for speed take off etc and
the main sports aircraft there was a sea
flank in two decades sea planes evolved
from a fragile flying apparatus to a
reliable machine able to withstand
significant accelerations the aircraft
behind me first came into service in
1935 it was built initially to fulfill a
requirement from the Australians who
wanted 12 aircraft to operate from
various ships that they had but it was
designed by a chap called RJ Mitchell
who worked for Supermarine and RJ
Mitchell as many of you will know was
the gentleman who designed the Spitfire
and one of the things that surprised
both RJ Mitchell was at the SBAC that
society british aerospace companies
airshow which then took place I believe
in Hendon in the 1930s the test pilot
actually looped to this aircraft which
surprised the designer but it was able
to under to withstand the pressures or
the stresses and strains simply because
it had been built so very strongly
Supermarine walrus specifications then
eleven and a half metres wingspan almost
14 meters maximum takeoff weight 3651
kilograms engine bristol pegasus six 680
horsepower maximum speed 217 km/h at a
height of one thousand four hundred and
fifty meters armament two three by seven
point seven millimeter Vickers or Lewis
machine gun payload 272 kilograms of
bombs crew three people there was the
pilots who obviously sat in the pilot's
seat the observer who denied the Navy's
term for navigator and the telegraphers
dare gunner who was usually the junior
member of the crew and it was his task
to climb out of the aircraft up to where
I'm standing and then on up
past the engine cowling and up to the
top of the wing there so if you can
imagine he was sitting up on top of here
with the crane hook coming down towards
him in a very rough sea waiting to hook
it on with that propeller but going
round behind him a very dangerous job
each returned from a mission post some
risk to a seaplane crew when an aircraft
was on the approach its parent ship
would perform a maneuver in the form of
the letter S it was necessary to create
a patch of relatively calm water for
landing having landed the seaplane would
approach the ship side but kept the
engine running because the ship was
moving and the pilot had to control the
aircraft's position until the lifting
cranes hook was lowered to them
and I'm pleased to say that my father
who was actually at Allegra stare gonna
and flew walruses from HMS Malaya in the
Pacific during the second world war was
actually one of the people who had to
clamber up here and get the aircraft
hooked on one of the names that this
aircraft used to be called - the
nickname was actually the steam the
pigeon and the reason for that is that a
lot of spray coming off the front of the
aircraft would hit the heated cylinders
of the air of the engine here and give
off clouds of steams The Walrus had a
characteristic trait this flying boat
was equipped with a retractable three
wheel undercarriage this feature enabled
the aircraft to be landed both on land
and water it was very dangerous to land
it with the undercarriage down over the
water because as they found out when it
was first attempted inadvertently the
aircraft actually ended up turning
upside down flipping over
but fortunately since the aircraft was
so strongly built it actually survived
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ship-borne aviation continued to evolve
and the range of tasks it could perform
became larger not only to spot an enemy
in time but also deliver a precise and
powerful strike on them
fairey aviation have been manufacturing
aircraft for the Admiralty and for the
Royal Navy from the end of World War one
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very developed its own aircraft as a
self-financed project for the TR TSR one
in the early 1930s this developed into
the TSR to which the Admiralty saw and
liked and adopted and soon became known
as the swordfish
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Fairey swordfish specifications length
11 meters wingspan almost 14 meters
maximum takeoff weight 4036 kilograms
injure bristol pegasus 3m 690 horsepower
maximum speed 222 km/h so the swordfish
could be slowed right down to almost a
walking pace to perform quite safe and
careful landings armament 17.7
millimeter vickers machine gun 17.7
millimeter Vickers all Lewis machine gun
in the rear cockpit payload 3 227
kilogram bombs torpedo 702 kilograms the
swordfish could carry a variety of
weapons to deliver of course the torpedo
which is what it was designed to carry
an anti shipping 18 inch torpedo but it
could also carry mines depth charges
small bombs and under wing rockets but
the torpedo was its mainstay there was
also a single forward firing gun
operated by the pilot the tag operated
only a single Lewis K machine gun so
that the swordfish was very lightly
armored for its own protection
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Kru three people it's very exposed to
the elements very wet very cold the
pilot and crew would have to be dressed
and lagged in their sheepskin coats and
trousers but still the crews loved it it
was still a very maneuverable airplane
it was still very forgiving
it was the airplane that they trusted
would almost always get them home and
that was important by the beginning of
World War two the saltfish was
considered obsolete but nevertheless it
was used on almost all front lines the
aircraft began its service with
anti-submarine patrols near the
Norwegian coast participated in convoy
escorting in the Atlantic Ocean and
defended Malta it played an important
role during the hunt for the famous
German battleship Bismarck and made a
crucial contribution to the defeat of
the Italian Navy at Toronto Harbor on
November the 12th 1940 20 swordfish
planes took off from an aircraft carrier
170 miles southeast of the Italian naval
base at Toronto the aircraft attacked in
two waves twelve and eight machines the
enemy was on the alert and the
anti-aircraft fire was quite dense the
swordfish split in two flights of three
planes each and having evaded barrage
balloons descended almost touching the
waves the swordfish was forgiving enough
that it allowed them to keep stable and
level at a very low height above the
water launched their four torpedoes and
then break away and maneuver out of
harm's way all below the enemy gunfire
thanks to moonlight and flares Italian
battleships were clearly visible and
received six torpedo hits as a result
three battleships anchored their mooring
at the same time the British lost only
one plane in each wave the lessons of
that night operation were well learned
by Japanese Admirals who used them
during the attack on Pearl Harbor as
well as the Sterling work in tracking
down and sinking the Bismarck and of
course the the Italian Harbor raid at
Toronto the swordfish
during the the middle part of World War
two in the Mediterranean did an enormous
amount of work to sink German and
Italian shipping swordfish squadrons
across a period of one month dealt with
more than than 30 enemy ships in one
month period and over a nine month
period average destroying 55 thousand
tons of shipping per month for a nine
month period that's an enormous amount
of destruction on the enemy just by
using the swordfish alone regardless of
all these successes the age of biplanes
came to its end by the beginning of 1942
it became obvious no matter how good the
swordfish was it could not complete all
the necessary tasks at sea a very key
piece of swordfish action during World
War Two was the launch of swordfish
against what was known as the channel -
the German fleet had been held in Brest
Harbor due to bad weather and had tried
to make a bolt up the English Channel to
get back to their own German harbors
this was spotted and Eugen Esmond led a
attack of swordfish out into the English
Channel in absolutely atrocious gale
force conditions to try and intercept
the German fleet as it ran along the
channel side tragically all of the
swordfish were shot down
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the reality of world war 2 required more
modern machines to oppose the German
Yonkers and Messerschmitt
at the beginning of World War two the
British had an apparent lag in the
development of Dec aviation the reason
for this was that the Admiralty
underestimated the role of aircraft
carriers accordingly they did not
allocate necessary funds scientists or
resources to develop Dec aviation a
little later they created another
aircraft Barracuda it was a British
build aircraft and it had good
characteristics in regard to takeoffs
and landings from a ship's tank the
further development of aircraft was
based on the designs created for the Air
Force the Royal Air Force they just took
prototypes of their own planes
modernized upgraded and rebuilt them to
suit the needs of the Royal Navy in
other words land-based aircraft appeared
and on their design ship-borne aircraft
appeared to be used aboard classic
carriers it was not until after the war
that the Air Arm of the Royal Navy
received a new aircraft
when batch production of the Westland
wyvern began it was able to play the
role of both an attack and fighter plane
specifications of the carrier born
fighter Westland wyvern s for length
almost 12 metres wingspan 13 and a half
meters maximum takeoff weight eleven
thousand one hundred and fifteen
kilograms engine turboprop armstrong
siddeley Python three three thousand six
hundred and seventy horsepower maximum
speed 615 km/h at a height of three
thousand meters had power folding wings
which to make sure it fitted in the
aircraft carrier folded not once but
twice because otherwise the tips would
have hit the top of the aircraft carrier
hangar and it used the Youngman flaps
which gave it a very good slow speed
landing capability and also gave it some
good combat turning radius armament for
twenty millimeter hispano marked five
cannons two in each outer wing payload
up to one thousand three hundred and
sixty kilograms
including bombs mines rockets depth
charges an 850 kilogram mark seventeen
torpedo or suspended fuel tanks crew one
person
so it became the first naval airplane to
have an ejection seat so the pilot in
emergency merely pulled a firing handle
and he was powered out of the airplane
on a martin-baker ejection seats so the
first time the pilot has ever had to do
that the wyvern was one of the fastest
propeller-driven airplanes the Navy ever
operated over 460 miles an hour
however apart from attack aircraft by
the beginning of World War two the
British Navy needed modern fighter
planes in the late 1930s the British had
to catch up with Germany and go from the
biplane era to the monoplane era
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