page_title: Supermarine Attacker
section_title: Into flight
hierarchical_section_title: Supermarine Attacker / Development / Into flight
caption_attribution_description: The second Supermarine Type 398 Attacker (serial TS413) in flight. It made its first flight on 17 June 1947. TS413 powered by a Rolls Royce Nene 3 Mk.101 turbojet (22.7 kN thrust). It featured a Martin-Baker Mark 1 type ejection seat, a yoke-style arresting hook, long-stroke landing gear, attachments for a catapult strop in the wheel wells, provisions for rocket-assisted takeoff gear (RATOG), and lift dumpers. TS413 already crashed on 17 September 1947 near Bulford Village near Amesbury on take-off from RAF Boscombe Down.
context_page_description: The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. The type has the distinction of being the first jet fighter to enter operational service with the FAA.
  Performing its maiden flight on 27 July 1946, the flight testing phase of development was protracted due to several issues, including handling difficulties. The first Attackers were introduced to FAA service during August 1951. Common to the majority of other first-generation jet fighters, the Attacker had a relatively short service life before being replaced; this was due to increasingly advanced aircraft harnessing the jet engine being rapidly developed during the 1950s and 1960s. Despite its retirement by the FAA during 1954, only three years following its introduction, the Attacker would be adopted by the newly-formed Pakistan Air Force, who would continue to operate the type possibly as late as 1964.
context_section_description: Following the design's rejection by the RAF, Supermarine decided to approach the Admiralty with an offer of developing a navalised version of the project. On 27 July 1946, the maiden flight of the type was performed by prototype Type 392 serial number TS409, a land-based version, by test pilot Jeffrey Quill. The Air Ministry issued Specification E.1/45 to cover production aircraft; meeting its various requirements necessitated a range of extensive modifications to be made to the design, including a revised fin and tailplane arrangement, as well as an increased internal fuel capacity. Accordingly, a large external ventral fuel tank was adopted, along with an extended dorsal fin and folding wing tips.
  Flight testing was largely conducted at Supermarine's newly-created experimental establishment at the former RAF Chilbolton. The Attacker had several deficiencies, one of which was using the Spiteful tail-wheel undercarriage rather than a nose-wheel undercarriage, a configuration that resulted in the Attacker being considerably more difficult to land on an aircraft carrier. According to aviation author Bill Gunston, this tail-dragger undercarriage 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". However, according to aviation periodical Flight,  claims of scorched or ploughed surfaces, even grass, were exaggerated. The Attacker was neither the only nor the first jet aircraft to be equipped with such an undercarriage, which was also used on the experimental Heinkel He 178 and several early Messerschmitt Me 262 aircraft. The chief designer at Vickers-Supermarine, Mr. J. Smith, claimed that testing had validated the performance of the tail-dragger undercarriage as acceptable.
  On 17 June 1947, the first navalised prototype, Type 398 TS413, conducted its first flight, flown by test pilot Mike Lithgow; occurring four years after the Meteor had performed its first flight. During November 1949, production orders on behalf of the FAA were received by Supermarine. On 5 May 1950, the first production variant of the aircraft, designated Attacker F.1, performed its first flight; one year later, deliveries of the type commenced.
caption: The second Type 398 Attacker (TS413) in flight, 1947
exif: {}