This is a list of aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). A Fairey Swordfish in Flight TR1138

On 1 April 1918 the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was merged with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to form the Royal Air Force (RAF) which directly operated and controlled all naval aircraft. On 1 April 1924 the ''Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force'' was created as a distinct component of the RAF, which existed until 24 May 1939 when command of the Fleet Air Arm was transferred back to

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

control. Coastal Command patrol aircraft, including most large seaplanes, remained with the RAF despite their operations in a naval environment.

Prototypes A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

were largely under the control of the Air Ministry and not the Fleet Air Arm until their introduction into service.

Aircraft

Acronyms in table :ASW; Anti-submarine warfare :AEW; Airborne Early Warning :ECM; Electronic counter measures :EW; Electronic Warfare aircraft

Helicopters to support the Royal Marines

* Aerospatiale Gazelle * Agusta-Bell Sioux * Westland-Bell Sioux *

Westland Lynx The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led t ...

Westland Scout The Westland Scout is a light helicopter developed by Westland Helicopters. Developed from the Saro P.531, it served as a land-based general purpose military helicopter, sharing a common ancestor and numerous components with the naval-orientat ...

Airships and balloons

List of British airships Airship development in the United Kingdom lagged behind that of Germany and France. The first British designed and built airship was constructed by Stanley Spencer, and on 22 September 1902 was flown from Crystal Palace, London to Ruislip, carr ...

Barrage balloon A barrage balloon is a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe collision risk to aircraft, making the attacker's approach more difficult. Early barra ...

UAVs and drones

Airspeed Queen Wasp The Airspeed AS.30 Queen Wasp was a British pilotless target aircraft built by Airspeed Limited at Portsmouth during the Second World War. Although intended for both Royal Air Force and Royal Navy use, the aircraft never went into series pro ...

Boeing Insitu ScanEagle The Boeing Insitu ScanEagle is a small, long-endurance, low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, and is used for reconnaissance. The ScanEagle was designed by Insitu based on the Insitu SeaScan, a co ...

* Curtiss Queen Seamew * de Havilland DH.82 Queen Bee * Miles Queen Martinet

Gliders

Akaflieg München Mü13 The Akaflieg München Mü13 Merlin and Akaflieg München Mü13 Atalante were gliders designed and built in Germany from 1935. A motor-glider version of the Merlin was converted by the addition of a small engine in the nose, as the Mü13M Mot ...

– One former Luftwaffe (1945–1957) *

DFS SG 38 Schulgleiter The Schneider DFS 108-14 SG-38 ''Schulgleiter'' () is a German high-wing, cable-braced, single-seat primary glider that was designed by Schneider, Rehberg and Hofmann at Edmund Schneider's factory at Grunau in 1938, hence the designation. It ...

– Three (1947–1952) * Eliotts Olympia I – One (1946–1955) * DFS Kranich I – One (1946–1960) * DFS Kranich II – One (1946–1953) * Schneider Grunau Baby – Six (1946–1952) *

Slingsby Cadet The Slingsby Cadet may refer to: *Slingsby Cadet TX1, military designation for Slingsby Kirby Cadet *Slingsby Cadet TX2, military designation for Slingsby Kirby Tutor The Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor was a single-seat sport glider produced from 19 ...

– One (1946–1949) * Slingsby Prefect – One (1953–1956)

Weapons of the Fleet Air Arm

Air-to-air missiles

AMRAAM The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM (pronounced ), is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It is 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter, and employs ...

: Medium-range

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

– Carried by the Sea Harrier. *

Firestreak The de Havilland Firestreak is a British first-generation, passive infrared homing (heat seeking) air-to-air missile. It was developed by de Havilland Propellers (later Hawker Siddeley) in the early 1950s, entering service in 1957. It was the fir ...

: Air-to-air missile – Carried by the Sea Venom and Sea Vixen (retired). * Red Top: Air-to-air missile – Carried by the Sea Vixen (retired). * Sidewinder: Short-range air-to-air missiles – Carried by the Buccaneer. Phantom, Scimitar and Sea Harrier. * Sparrow: Medium-range air-to-air missile – Carried by the Phantom

Air-to-surface missiles

* AS.11: air-to-surface anti-tank, anti-ship missile. Carried by the

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

and

Wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

helicopter (retired). * AS.12: Air-to-surface anti-ship missile. Carried by the Wasp and Wessex helicopters (retired). *

Bullpup A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the Chamber (firearms), breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, ...

Air-to-surface missile An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...

– Carried by the Scimitar and Sea Vixen (retired). *

Lightweight Multirole Missile Martlet is a lightweight air-to-surface, surface-to-air, and surface-to-surface missile developed by Thales Air Defence for the United Kingdom. It is named after a mythical bird from English heraldry that never roosts, the martlet. Developed ...

Martel Martel may refer to: People * Andre Martel (1946–2016), American politician and businessman * Anne-Marie Martel (1644–1673), founder of what is now the Congrégation des Sœurs de l’Enfant-Jésus. * James B. Aguayo-Martel, ophthalmologist ...

– Carried by the Buccaneer and Sea Harrier. *

Sea Eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Haliaeetus'' ...

: Anti-ship missile, carried by the Buccaneer and Sea Harrier. *

Sea Skua The Sea Skua is a British lightweight short-range air-to-surface missile (ASM) designed for use from helicopters against ships. It was primarily used by the Royal Navy on the Westland Lynx. Although the missile is intended for helicopter use, Kuw ...

: Anti-ship missile, normally carried by the Lynx. * Sea Venom: Anti-ship missile, on order for use on the Wildcat.

Nuclear weapons 1950 to 2000

* Red Beard nuclear bomb – Carried by the Buccaneer, Scimitar and Sea Vixen. *

WE.177 The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear we ...

nuclear bomb – Carried by the Buccaneer, Sea Harrier and Sea Vixen. **

nuclear depth charge – Carried by the Westland Lynx, Wasp and Wessex helicopters.

Unguided rockets

* 2-inch RP - Air-to-air, air-to-surface rockets. Carried by the Buccaneer and Sea Vixen. *

SNEB The SNEB rocket (french: Societe Nouvelle des Etablissements Edgar Brandt) is an unguided air-to-ground rocket projectile manufactured by the French company ''TDA Armements'', designed for launch by combat aircraft and helicopters. It is also k ...

– 68-mm (2.7-inch) air-to-surface rockets. Carried by the Buccaneer, Phantom, Sea Harrier and Sea Vixen. *

RP-3 The RP-3 (from Rocket Projectile 3 inch) was a British air to ground rocket projectile introduced during the Second World War. The "3 inch" designation referred to the nominal diameter of the rocket motor tube. The use of a warhead gave rise to ...

– 3-inch (76-mm) air-to-surface rockets. Carried by the Attacker. Firefly, Scimitar, Sea Fury, Sea Hawk, Sea Hurricane, Sea Vixen, Swordfish, Tarpon/Avenger.

Torpedoes

* 18" Mark 30 torpedo – Carried by the Fairey Gannet and Westland Whirlwind helicopter. *

British 18 inch torpedo There have been a number of 18-inch torpedoes in service with the United Kingdom. These have been used on ships of the Royal Navy and aircraft of both the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force, while Royal Navy surface ships and submarines use 21-inc ...

– Carried by the Blackburn Firebrand. *

Mark 24 mine The Mark 24 mine (also known as FIDO or Fido) is an air-dropped anti-submarine warfare weapon (ASW) incorporating passive acoustic homing system and torpedo integration. It was used by the United States, the British and Canadian forces during the ...

Mark 43 torpedo The 10" Mark 43 torpedo was the first and smallest of the United States Navy light-weight anti-submarine torpedoes. This electrically propelled 10-inch (25-cm) torpedo was 92 inches (2.3 m) long and weighed 265 pounds (120 kg). Described ...

Mark 44 torpedo The Mark 44 torpedo is a now-obsolete air-launched and ship-launched lightweight torpedo manufactured in the United States, and under licence in Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, with 10,500 being produced for U.S. service. It ...

– Carried by the Westland Sea king, Wasp, Wessex and Whirlwind helicopters. * Mark 46 torpedo – Carried by the Westland Lynx, Sea King, Wasp, Wessex and Whirlwind helicopters. * Sting Ray torpedo – Carried by the Westland Lynx and Sea King helicopters.

Free fall bombs

BL755 BL755 is a cluster bomb developed by Hunting Aircraft that contains 147 parachute-retarded high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) submunitions. Its primary targets are armoured vehicles and tanks with secondary soft target (anti personnel) capabiliti ...

References

External links

{{commons category, Aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm
Fleet Arm Arm Archive: AircraftFleet Air Arm - Phantom F4K
Fleet Air Arm aircraft Fleet Air Arm United Kingdom Fleet Air Arm, List of aircraft of the