Restored naval control of the Fleet Air Arm exposed a mismatch between carrier needs and Air Ministry engine policy. In 1937, Henderson, then Third Sea Lord, asked what would succeed the roughly 1,000-horsepower engines being refined for multi-engine bombers. A carrier service needed one powerful engine rather than several smaller ones. The Navy ordered 2,000-horsepower designs about a year before the Air Ministry probably would have ordered them. The Napier Sabre first ran in January 1938, while the Rolls-Royce Griffon followed in November 1939. The requirement was recognized before the war, but useful production still arrived too late.
Chapter · 5:12-7:33
Henderson's 2,000-horsepower engine order for the Fleet Air Arm
Henderson's early orders show how restored naval control of the Fleet Air Arm exposed the mismatch between bomber-oriented engine policy and carrier-aircraft needs.