The Blackburn B-24 Skua was a carrier-based low-wing, two-seater, single-radial engine aircraft by the British aviation company Blackburn Aircraft. 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. The aircraft took its name from the sea bird which 'divebombs' any potential predators that come too close to its nest.
Blackburn Skua
Production Skua Mk.II, L2928 "S" of 759 Squadron. This aircraft also served with 801 Squadron in the Norwegian Campaign, and, flying from RAF Detling, was present at Dunkirk.
A Skua about to land on HMS Ark Royal, April 1941
Skuas of 800 Naval Air Squadron lined up on the flight deck of Ark Royal
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is called a "star engine" in some other languages.
Radial engine in a biplane
Master rod (upright) and slaved connecting rods from a two-row, fourteen-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior
Continental radial, 1944
Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial mounted in Sikorsky H-19 helicopter