Written by a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot in the Royal Navy and an award-winning historian of naval flying, this book provides a masterly overview of the history of aviation in the world's navies down to the present day. Heavily illustrated from the author's comprehensive collection of photographs, the book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in navies or air power. The author charts the progress and growing effectiveness of naval air power, concentrating on the advances and inventions that allowed shipborne aircraft to match their land-based counterparts and looking at their contributions to twentieth-century warfare.