US Naval Aviation, 1945–2003: Rare Photographs from Naval Archives

Leo Marriott

jul 2023 · Air World

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In this the highly illustrated second volume of his history of US naval aviation, Leo Marriott takes the reader through the extraordinary developments in design and capability that transformed American aircraft and aircraft carriers after the Second World War, and he describes the succession of conflicts in which they were deployed. Increasingly, advanced jets replaced propeller-driven aircraft and nuclearpowered carriers allowed the US Navy to project American military power across the world. As the many remarkable photographs in this book show, wherever naval aviation was involved, it played a crucial role, especially in the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The vessels built in the 1940s to fight in the war against Japan gave way to a new generation of super carriers. Supersonic fighters and strike aircraft entered service – the F-8 Crusaders and F-4 Phantoms of the Vietnam era, then the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet and S-3 Viking of more recent times. Carrier-based helicopters became more important, first for search-and-rescue missions, then for anti-submarine warfare and for landing assault forces. Throughout this period of the Cold War the US Navy’s carriers and aviation served to demonstrate American power worldwide and to counter the threat represented by the Soviet Union’s challenge to US mastery of the seas.

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Leo Marriott has written numerous books on aviation, naval and military subjects including Treaty Cruisers, Catapult Aircraft, Jets at Sea and Early Jet Fighters: British and American 1944-1954. He is now retired after a fifty-year career as an air traffic controller but still maintains his pilot’s license flying a syndicate-owned Cessna 172. Apart from aviation and naval history, his other interests include sailing, photography and painting.