Carrier Aircraft (The Classic Jet Era)

At the end of WW2, aircraft carrier aviation – the art of flying combat aircraft off the deck of a ship for operations and landing back aboard – was a sophisticated business.

The arrival of jet aircraft threw it back to square one. Jets brought with them a whole new set of problems, and it took new technologies, techniques, and courage for the pioneers of the jet age to solve them.

But once jets found their place aboard the aircraft carrier, it transformed carrier aviation. From the first beginnings through the vast and complex strike carriers of the ‘60s and ‘70s, to new frontiers with vertical take-off and landing, carrier aviation came of age.

Carrier Aircraft: The Classic Jet Era looks at the machines, people and operations from the brave experimenters in the aftermath of World War Two, via the pivotal actions in Korea, Suez and Vietnam, to the Falklands and towards the modern era.