By 1955 the Fleet Air Arm had moved beyond the piston-heavy group of the immediate postwar years. The Westland Wyvern supplied strike power, the Hawker Sea Hawk served as a jet fighter and attack aircraft, and the twin-seat Sea Venom supported night and all-weather operations. Skyraiders continued to provide airborne early warning, a role that increasingly shaped the whole fleet's defensive system. The combination shows both rapid technical progress and the pressure that larger, more specialized aircraft placed on Britain's wartime-sized carriers.
Notable Point · 1:30:29-1:30:52
The Royal Navy's carrier air group by 1955
The 1955 air group combines turboprop strike aircraft, day and all-weather jets, and Skyraider airborne early warning on Britain's increasingly constrained carrier decks.