Supermarine Attacker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Attacker

The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter built by
Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The type has the
distinction of being the first jet fighter to enter operational service with the
FAA. Like most other first-generation jet fighters, it had a short service life
due to the rapid development of increasingly advanced aircraft during the 1950s
and 1960s.

The Attacker developed from a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet project, under
Air Ministry Specification E.10 of 1944 (the E for experimental). The design of
the Attacker used the laminar flow straight-wings of the Supermarine Spiteful, a
piston-engined fighter intended to replace the Supermarine Spitfire, and what
became the Attacker was originally referred to as the "Jet Spiteful". The
project was intended to provide an interim fighter for the RAF while another
aircraft, the Gloster E.1/44 also using the Nene engine, was developed. An order
for three prototypes was placed on 30 August 1944, the second and third of which
were to be navalised. An order for a further 24 pre-production aircraft, six for
the RAF and the remaining 18 for the Fleet Air Arm was placed on 7 July 1945.

Handling problems with the Spiteful prototype delayed progress on the
jet-powered version, leading to the pre-production order of 24 being stopped,
although work on the three prototypes continued. The Fleet Air Arm instead
bought 18 de Havilland Vampire Mk. 20s to gain experience with jet aircraft. The
RAF rejected both designs since they offered no perceptible performance
advantage over the contemporary Gloster Meteor and the de Havilland Vampire, the
RAF's first two operational jet aircraft. Supermarine offered a navalised
version of the project to the Admiralty. The prototype Type 392 serial number
TS409 land version was first flown on 27 July 1946, by test pilot Jeffrey Quill.

The Attacker suffered from deficiencies which led to it quickly being
superseded; one being that the aircraft retained the Spiteful's tail-wheel
undercarriage (due to the extent of the re-tooling that would have been required
to alter the Spiteful's wing), rather than a nose-wheel undercarriage, thus
making the Attacker more difficult to land on aircraft carriers. This same
tail-down attitude meant that when operating from grass airfields the jet
exhaust would create a long furrow in the ground that "three men could lie down
in". Also the new wing was apparently aerodynamically inferior to the original
Spitfire elliptic one, with lower critical Mach number, leading to someone
quipping that "they rather should have left the Spitfire wing on the thing".


Role
Naval fighter

National origin
United Kingdom

Manufacturer
Supermarine

First flight
27 July 1946

Introduction
August 1951

Retired
FAA: 1954
RNVR: 1957
PAF: 1964

Primary users
Royal Navy
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Pakistan Air Force

Number built
182 + 3 prototypes

Developed from
Supermarine Spiteful

The Attacker had a brief career with the Fleet Air Arm, not seeing any action
during its time with the FAA and being taken out of first-line service in 1954.
It remained in service with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) for a
little while longer, being taken out of service in early 1957. The Attacker was
replaced in the front line squadrons by the later and more capable Hawker Sea
Hawk and de Havilland Sea Venom.

Pakistan

In the early 1950s, when the newly formed Royal Pakistan Air Force (RPAF; later
Pakistan Air Force) sought to acquire jet fighters, a lack of funds, combined
with pressure from British suppliers persuaded it to acquire the Supermarine
Attacker "P" (Type 538), a "de-navalised" variant of the type used by the FAA.

The only squadron to be equipped with these aircraft, from 1953, was an
interceptor unit, No. 11 "Arrows" Squadron. A total of 36 Attackers had been
acquired when "Arrows" Squadron officially converted to the F-86F Sabre, on 18
January 1956. However, some sources state that Attackers were used by PAF until
1960.

In the RPAF the Attacker was regarded as unsatisfactory, due to frequent
maintenance problems and a relatively high attrition rate.

Specifications (F.1)

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Wingspan: 36 ft 11 in (11.25 m)
Height: 9 ft 11 in (3.02 m)
Wing area: 226 sq ft (21.0 m2)
Empty weight: 8,434 lb (3,826 kg)
Gross weight: 12,211 lb (5,539 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet, 5,000 lbf (22 kN) thrust

Performance
Maximum speed: 590 mph (950 km/h; 513 kn)
Range: 590 mi (513 nmi; 950 km)
Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (14,000 m)
Rate of climb: 6,350 ft/min (32.3 m/s)

Armament

Guns: 4 × Hispano No. 3 Mark 5 20mm Cannon



*