It was the first Royal Navy carrier-borne all-metal cantilever monoplane aircraft, as well as the first dive bomber in Fleet Air Arm (FAA) service.
During the early half of the conflict, the Skua was heavily involved in the Norwegian campaign and sank the German cruiser Königsberg, the first major warship sunk in war by air attack and by dive-bombers.
While a capable dive bomber, its poor top speed and rate of climb meant it was severely limited as a fighter aircraft.
[4] During the latter part of 1937, the aircraft underwent official handling trials with the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at RAF Martlesham Heath.
Another change made on production aircraft was the elimination of the wing tip slots, as they were deemed unnecessary after handling tests revealed mild stall characteristics.
[6] Due to the growing urgency for more combat aircraft in the runup to the Second World War, an initial production contract for 190 Skuas was issued in July 1935, effectively being ordered straight from the drawing board.
To accelerate production, it was decided to produce the mainplanes at the Olympia Works in Leeds, while a subcontracting arrangement with General Aircraft Limited saw this company build additional fuselages at its Hanworth facility.
It was internally divided into two water-tight compartments beneath the pilot's and gunner's cockpits to provide sufficient buoyancy in the event of a forcing landing at sea.
The fuselage was stressed to withstand catapult-assisted takeoffs and arrested landings aboard aircraft carriers; a hydraulic damping device was incorporated in the hook.
The outer wing panels, which tapered in both plan and thickness, ended in detachable upswept tips and were sealed between the main spars to form additional watertight compartments.
[10] Recesses in the lower surface of the wing accommodated modified Zap flaps that were used to shorten takeoff runs, steepen glides, and limit the aircraft's speed during steep dives.
[11] Considerable design complexity was incurred by the choice to have both a retractable undercarriage and folding wings; the solution drew on the earlier Blackburn Airedale monoplane.
The main undercarriage retracted both outwards and upwards into circular wheel wells in the underside of the outer wing panels, the motion being powered by an engine-driven hydraulic pump.
[12] The crew were accommodated beneath an enclosed glazed cockpit enclosure strengthened by two fuselage frames that formed a crash pylon in the event of the aircraft turning over.
[4] 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.
[2] The pilot's position featured a sliding hood and was provided with favourable visibility in most forward-facing directions, while the gunner was seated after of the wing beneath a tilting canopy that could be opened or closed dependent on whether the defensive gun was being operated.
That was compounded by various features included to suit its naval use, such as an arrester hook, folding wings, a relatively large fuel capacity, watertight compartments, rafts, and a rear gunner/observer.
That weight, coupled with the limited power from the 890 hp (660 kW) Perseus engine, meant the aircraft had a low rate of climb compared to contemporary Japanese Mitsubishi A5M[N 1] and American Grumman F3F carrier-borne fighters[N 2] along with the Royal Navy's Gloster Sea Gladiator.
It scored numerous successes as a dive bomber in the Norwegian campaign, sinking and damaging a number of ships, most notably the German cruiser Königsberg on 10 April 1940.
[17][19] On 10 April 1940, 16 Skuas of 800 and 803 NAS led by Lieutenant Commander William Lucy, flying from RNAS Hatston in the Orkney Islands made a 330 mile night flight to arrive at the very limit of their radius - at dawn over Bergen Harbour.
[22] During June 1940, Skuas of 801 Squadron flew from shore bases in Kent in support of the Dunkirk evacuation, acting as a unit of RAF Fighter Command.
[23] On 13 June 1940, two mostly-Skua squadrons suffered heavy losses during an attempt to bomb the Scharnhorst at Trondheim; of 15 aircraft in the raid, eight were shot down and the crews killed or taken prisoner.
Despite its limitations, the Skua attained considerable success as a fighter against Axis bombers and flying boats over Norway, and to a lesser extent, in the Mediterranean in the early stages of the conflict.
Common Axis foes such as the Junkers Ju 88 and Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 were significantly faster than the Skua, making interception of these aircraft extremely difficult.
Rocs were attached to Skua squadrons to protect the fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow in early 1940 and briefly from HMS Glorious and Ark Royal during the Norwegian Campaign.
[29] 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.