Supermarine Attacker by Tony Buttler

The Supermarine Attacker as the naval firstborn

In this volume Tony Buttler follows the machine with which British naval aviation entered the jet era. The item is a printed publication and contains nothing to assemble.

Engineering and combat service

The Attacker combined an entirely new powerplant with a wing derived from a late piston design, so it kept straight surfaces at a time when the world was already turning to swept ones. Its forward landing gear was unusual too, or rather its absence, because the machine stood on a tail wheel at the rear, which complicated both the take-off run and the view from the cockpit in deck operations. Even so it became the first jet type to enter front-line service with the British fleet in the early 1950s. Later it passed to reserve squadrons, and part of the production went abroad, where it served in a different and strikingly colorful finish.

Points the text deals with

• The transition from a piston design to jet power
• The tail wheel landing gear and its effect on deck operations
• Introduction with front-line and later with reserve units
• The foreign user and its different finishes
• A comparison with contemporary rivals of the first jet generation

Who will reach for the book

The title will please modelers focused on carrier aircraft and on early jet equipment, where reference is usually scarce. It is also useful for readers who follow how designers coped with the arrival of a new form of power. It serves equally well as an addition to a collection on postwar British aviation.