In development of the various “Heritage” pieces on this website, there has been increasing need to understand the chronology of the ‘mainstream’ aircraft that have served in the RAN’s Fleet Air Arm – and, by the same token, what their service life was.
COVID-19 lockdown provided the opportunity to put on the kettle and do the research, and the results are shown below. In the first graph, only ‘mainstream’ aircraft are listed – i.e. not those loaned to the FAA (eg Sopwith Baby, Westland Dragonfly), although I’ve included interim aircraft such as the Augusta Bell 109E and Bell 429 (lumped together), which procured for training pending mainstream arrivals.
The second graph has similar principles applied, with the exception that the interim aircraft and those in current service are not included. Click once or twice on either graph to progressively expand it, depending on your device resolution.
Marcus Peake
Webmaster. July 2020
