“Built like a—battleship”. I always remember this cryptic remark from one of the deck crew of the Courageous after the first deck landing on this Carrier of the Blackburn Skua well over twenty-five years ago. I still don't know whether this was a compliment or not, but it aptly fitted the rugged aircraft required for the very arduous Naval duties. The Skua was in fact the first monoplane specifically designed for the Navy, and it followed a long string of biplanes starting with the Dart, a torpedo carrying aircraft designed at Brough as a “private venture” immediately after the First World War.

None of these machines were particularly attractive in appearance, restricted as they were in span, length, height and so on, and handicapped with folding wing requirements, and the provision of an alternative float seaplane undercarriage that in most cases determined a large proportion of the main structure of the aircraft.