It is not often that one is invited to undertake a task which is pure self-indulgence, for that is what this picture album has become. The period from the end of the Second World War to the present day has been one of incredible development, change, success and disappointment for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, the service which has exercised British naval air power so well. Further, this period is arguably the most interesting and important in the evolution of naval air power and the operational use of naval aircraft.