Built to Air Ministry specification O.27/34, it was a low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, with a retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpit. It was the Fleet Air Arm's first service monoplane and was a radical departure for a force that was primarily equipped with open-cockpit biplanes such as the Fairey Swordfish. Performance for the fighter role was compromised by the aircraft's naval requirements for folding wings, large fuel capacity, heavy armament with large ammunition supply, rear gunner and lack of power of contemporary aircooled engines, resulting in a relatively low speed; in common with contemporary marks of Japanese and United States Navy Aircraft Carrier borne fighters along with the Royal Navy's Gloster Sea Gladiator. These naval fighters compared unfavourably with land based fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 which reached at sea level over the Skua's and the Gloster Sea Gladiator's. The armament of four fixed, forward-firing 0.303 in Browning machine guns in the wings and a single flexible, rearward-firing.303 in Vickers K machine gun was effective for the time. For the dive-bombing role, a or bomb was carried on a special swinging "trapeze" crutch under the fuselage, which enabled the bomb to clear the propeller arc on release. Four bombs or eight Cooper bombs could also be carried in racks under each wing. It had large Zap-type air brakes/flaps, which helped in dive bombing and landing on aircraft carriers at sea. Two prototypes were ordered from Blackburn in 1935 and the first, serial numberK5178, first flew on 9 February 1937. Both prototypes were powered by the Bristol Mercury XIIradial engine but following trials when a production order for 190 aircraft was placed, they were to have Bristol Perseus XII engines.
Operational history
The first unit to receive the Skua was 800 Naval Air Squadron in late 1938 at Worth Down. By November the squadron had embarked on and was followed in 1939 by 801 and 803 squadrons. With the start of the Second World War, Skuas were soon in action and on 14 September three took off from Ark Royal to go to the aid of the SS Fanad Head which had been attacked by a U-boat. When they arrived, the Fanad Head was being shelled by U-30 and all three dived to attack the submarine, which quickly dived to safety. Two of the Skuas were damaged by the blasts and had to ditch. U-30 returned to Germany with the crews of the two ditched Skuas, who became the first naval airmen to be prisoners of war in the conflict. Skuas were originally credited with the first confirmed kill by British aircraft during the Second World War: a Dornier Do 18flying boat was shot down over the North Sea on 26 September 1939 by three Skuas of 803 Naval Air Squadron, flying from Ark Royal.. On 10 April 1940, 16 Skuas of 800 and 803 NAS led by Lieutenant CommanderWilliam Lucy, flying from RNAS Hatston in the Orkney Islands, sank the in Bergen harbour during Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. Königsberg was the first major warship ever sunk in war by air attack and the first major warship ever to be sunk by dive bombing. Lucy later also became a fighter ace flying the Skua. These two mostly-Skua squadrons suffered heavy losses during an attempt to bomb the German battleship Scharnhorst at Trondheim on 13 June 1940; of 15 aircraft in the raid, eight were shot down and the crews killed or taken prisoner. Among the latter were both squadron commanders, Captain R. T. Partridge and Lieutenant Commander John Casson. Although it fared reasonably well against Axis bombers over Norway and in the Mediterranean, the Skua suffered heavy losses when confronted with modern fighters, particularly the Bf 109, and they were withdrawn from front line service in 1941. Most Skuas were replaced by another two-seater, the Fairey Fulmar, which doubled the Skua's forward armament and had a speed advantage of. A number of aircraft were converted to target tugs, following withdrawal from front line service. Others were completed as target tugs from the factory and used by the RAF and Fleet Air Arm in this role. They were also used as advanced trainers for the Fleet Air Arm. The last Skua in service was struck off charge in March 1945. The Blackburn Roc was a very similar aircraft developed as a turret fighter, with all its armament in a turret. The Roc was expected to fly with the Skua. Rocs were attached to Skua squadrons to protect the fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow in early 1940 and briefly from and Ark Royal during the Norwegian Campaign. Skuas and Rocs flew fighter sweeps and bombing sorties over the English Channel during Operation Dynamo and Operation Ariel, the evacuations of Allied forces from Dunkirk and other French ports.
Variants
Skua Mk.I : two prototypes. Powered by the Bristol Mercury, it had distinctive fairings to the engine cowling over the tappet valves of the Mercury. The first prototype, K5178, had a much shorter nose while K5179, the second prototype, had a lengthened nose to improve longitudinal stability.
No intact Skuas survive. In April 2007 the only known nearly complete Blackburn Skua was discovered in Orkdalsfjorden in Norway at depth. Due to an engine failure, the Skua, flown by John Casson, leader of 803 Squadron, had to make an emergency water landing in the fjord. Both crew members survived and spent the next five years as prisoners of war. Despite efforts to raise the aircraft to the surface as gently as possible, the tail broke off. The engine had become detached in the ditching. The fuselage, cockpit and wings were salvaged. The Skua will be restored at Norway's aviation museum in Bodø. In 1974, L2940 was recovered from Breidalsvatnet lake, near Grotli in Skjåk municipality in Norway. Captain R. T. Partridge shot down a Heinkel He 111 and then made an emergency landing on the ice-covered lake on 27 April 1940. Survivors from both aeroplanes independently made their way to a mountain lodge, where they encountered each another. This incident serves as the basis for the film Into the White.
