Best Fleet Air Arm (Royal Navy) Aircraft of WW2

[Lightning Guy]

Well like I said, they never got to try it out. The Shinano was sunk before she was even fitted out.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

back on topic, i think we all agree on the swordfish was the most sucessfull fleet air arm plane of the war???

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

back on topic, i think we all agree on the swordfish was the most sucessfull fleet air arm plane of the war???

 

[Lightning Guy]

Easily. There is nothing else to compare it to.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but was it the best??

 

[Lightning Guy]

Well, again how are we defining best? Certainly not the best in terms of performance. But it did out-live the Alabacore which was supposed to replace it. The plane that did replace it was the Avenger but since it was American built should probably be omitted from this discussion.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

as much as it pains me to say it, as a island nation that depended on our carriers, we hardly exelled ourselfs when it came to the design of naval planes...............

 

[Lightning Guy]

No you didn not. But alot of that was infighting between the RAF and the FAA. It was imagined that naval versions of land-based planes would work fine. Well, that wasn't always the case.

 

[plan_D]

Plus the fact that Britain didn't depend on its carriers. Being an island nation where defence was the only military stratergy short ranged land-based fighters were perfectly good enough to serve the purpose of defence of the British nation.

Carriers are an offensive weapon, not defensive. Still, we're the ones who invented them, and put all the improvements on them.

 

[Lightning Guy]

That may be true, but at no time since inventing the carrier have the British had the best carrier in the world. That title would belong to the IJN and the USN.

 

[plan_D]

That is also true, but Britain, as a defensive nation doesn't really need them.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

perhaps I should have said as an island nation............

and it's proberly worthy of note that we came up with many of the ideas that make your american carriers so great.........................

 

[Lightning Guy]

I didn't deny that. IMO the RN would have done well to have invested more in carriers during the period between the wars. Yes they were an island nation, but during the 20s and 30s they were still responsible for a huge empire/commonwealth. That was the reason the RN was as large as it was but most of that strength was in a WWI-style battle fleet. The RN would have done well to have produced one or two more Ark Royal class CVs prior to the war.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but you know how stubborn we are, we were always set in our minds that the battle ship was the primary naval weapon, WWII changed that however...............

 

[Gemhorse]

My turn for 'Internet-troubles'... Yeah, thanks LG, I do concede the Hellcat as being the Best Carrier Aircraft ; - the book I've been reading is of a NZ pilot who trained on P-40's and fought in Corsairs, and it seems that once experienced, this 'vice' was overcome by taking care during those manoevres. He had a scare early in his training with the stall, flying the P-40, so he was most careful of this vice in the heavier Corsair and become 'at one' with them during his service. - I have now read more extensively on the Swordfish, and do also concede that the 'Stringbags' were the Best Offensive Carrier Aircraft in the FAA...The Seafire must rate though, as the Best Defensive Carrier Aircraft, I cannot accept the Firefly here as it wouldn't have been much chop in a dogfight, although they were good at Ground-attacks.- I feel the greatest problem the FAA had, was as a result of the inter-service rivalry which really seems to have inhibited the positive-growth and development of the 'Senior Service's' Aviation Arm during the War years...Britain is always very proud of it's Navy...like Lanc says, 'stubborn'.....

 

[Lightning Guy]

The Seafire was the best 'homegrown' fighter the FAA had during the war but it was still a carrier-based version of a land-based fighter and, consequently, was less than perfect. It was a wonderful defense fighter, but lacked the range to be an offensive fighter. It simply couldn't escort Swordfish or Avengers to a useful radius.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but the stringbad didn't need escort, it was hardly likely to run into a pack of 109s in the middle of the atlantic were they, and there'd be no point in escorting them on a ship srike...............................

 

[Lightning Guy]

But would have been a serious problem had the RN engaged in a fleet encounter with the IJN. I realize that is all hypothetical, but the Seafire lacked that range for any sort of effective offensive opperation.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but if we had come into that problem, we would have developed a fighter with better range or just used hellcats..................

 

[Lightning Guy]

Probably just use Hellcats. They were available and a lot easier to aquire than developing a new fighter. Frankly, the RN was pretty much dependant on the USN for aircraft during the later half of the war.