Carrier fighters and the problem of warning before radar

Fighters were important to carrier air groups in the first five or six years after the First World War. Without radar, warning could depend on observers in aircraft such as the Blackburn Blackburn spotting threats through binoculars and reporting by radio. A combat air patrol could still be in the wrong place or receive warning too late to intercept an attack. Those doubts encouraged emphasis on strike aircraft and machines capable of several tasks. The Swordfish combined torpedo attack, spotting and reconnaissance.