Senior Fleet Air Arm observers and pilots worked with the Rear Admiral Aircraft Carriers to define what naval aviation needed. The Admiralty added its judgment before the requirement passed to the Air Ministry and its research and development directors. Industry's proposals then travelled back through the same institutions in repeated cycles. The process could last long enough for a different senior officer to receive the aircraft from the one who had requested it. That delay and uncertainty help explain why the service sometimes procured more than one aircraft, as it initially did with the Swordfish and Blackburn Shark.
Notable Point · 31:32-33:06
Fleet Air Arm needs passed through Admiralty and Air Ministry layers
See how naval aviators, the Rear Admiral Aircraft Carriers, the Admiralty, the Air Ministry, and industry repeatedly revised a carrier-aircraft requirement.