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Fairey Firefly

Fairey Firefly AS. Mk 6
Type Carrier Fighter
Manufacturer Fairey Aviation Company, Ltd.
Maiden flight 22nd December 1941
Introduced 1943
Retired 1958 (Fleet Air Arm)
Primary user Fleet Air Arm
Produced 1941-1955
Number built 1,702

The Fairey Firefly was a British Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing building testing selling and maintaining Aircraft, Aircraft parts The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British Aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Greater London The maiden flight of an Aircraft is the first occasion on which an aircraft leaves the ground of its own accord Events 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies This is a list of Aviation -related events from 1941: Events Jackie Cochran became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of the aircraft on board their ships Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including An aircraft carrier is a Warship designed with A fighter aircraft is a Military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other Aircraft, as opposed to a Bomber, which is designed The Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of the aircraft on board their ships It was superior in performance and firepower to its predecessor, the Fairey Fulmar, but did not enter operational service until towards the end of the war. The Fairey Fulmar was a British carrier-borne Fighter aircraft that served with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA during World War II. It remained a mainstay of the FAA until the mid-1950s.

Contents

Design and development

The Firefly was designed by H. E. Chaplin at Fairey Aviation in 1940; in June 1940, the Admiralty ordered 200 aircraft to meet Specification N. The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British Aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Greater London Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. 5/40. The prototype of the Mk I Firefly flew on 22 December 1941. Events 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [1] Although it was two tons heavier than the Fulmar (due largely to its armament of two 20 mm cannon in each wing), the Firefly was 40 mph (64 km/h) faster due to improved aerodynamics and a more powerful engine, the 1,730 hp (1,290 kW) Rolls-Royce Griffon IIB. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

The Firefly is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with oval-section metal semi-monocoque fuselage and conventional tail unit with forward placed tailplane. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon liquid-cooled piston engine with a three-blade airscrew. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The Firefly had retractable main landing gear and tail wheel, with the hydraulic operated main landing gear retracting inwards into the underside of the wing centre-section. The aircraft also had a retractable deck arrester-hook under the rear fuselage. The Pilot's cockpit was over the leading edge of the wing and the observer/radio-operator/navigator aft of the wing trailing edge. Both crew had separate jettisonable canopies. The all metal wing could be folded manually, with the wings along the sides of the fuselage. When in the flying position the wings were hydraulically locked. [2]

Operational service

The primary variant of the aircraft used during the Second World War was the Mk I, which was used in all theatres of operation. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In March 1943, the first Firefly Mk Is were delivered but they did not enter operational service until July 1944 when they equipped No. 1770 Squadron aboard HMS Indefatigable. The first operations were in Europe where Fireflies made armed reconnaissance flights and anti-shipping strikes along the Norwegian coast. Fireflies also provided air cover during strikes on the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944. A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were Operational history This battleship was launched on 1 April 1939 and she was planned to be deployed in a manner similar to the ''Bismarck'', as a Commerce raider

Throughout its operational career, the Firefly took on increasingly more demanding roles from fighter to anti-submarine warfare stationed mainly with the British Pacific Fleet in the Far East and Pacific theatres. The British Pacific Fleet (BPF was a multinational Allied naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. Fireflies carried out attacks on oil refineries and airfields and gained renown when they became the first British-designed and -built aircraft to overfly Tokyo. [3]

After the Second World War, the Firefly remained in service in the UK, which also supplied the aircraft to Canada, Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands and Thailand. The Royal Canadian Navy employed 65 Fireflies of the Mk AS 5 type onboard its own aircraft carriers between 1946 and 1954. For the history of Canada's naval forces after 1968 see Canadian Forces Maritime Command The Royal Canadian Navy ( RCN) was the It also had some Mk I Fireflies, and sold several of these to Ethiopia in the early 1950s. British and Australian Fireflies carried out anti-shipping patrols and ground strikes off various aircraft carriers in the Korean War as well as serving in the ground-attack role in the Malaya. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the The Malayan Emergency was a State of emergency declared by the British colonial government of Malaya in 1948 and lifted in 1960 as well as an insurrection and The Firefly's FAA frontline career ended with the introduction of the Fairey Gannet. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

Variants

Firefly I / FR. I
Two variants of the Mk I Firefly were built; 429 "fighter" Firefly F Mk Is, built by Fairey and General Aircraft Ltd, and 376 "fighter/reconnaissance" Firefly FR Mk Is (which were fitted with the ASH detection radar). General Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1931 to amalgamation with Blackburn Aircraft in 1949 to become Blackburn and Reconnaissance (also scouting) is a military and medical term denoting exploration conducted to gain information Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships The last 334 Mk Is built were upgraded with the 1,765 hp (1,316 kW) Griffon XII engine.
Firefly F. Mk 1A
Firefly with wings folded, Oshkosh, 2002.
Firefly with wings folded, Oshkosh, 2002.
Firefly NF. Mk II
Only 37 Mk II Fireflies were built, all of which were night fighter Firefly NF Mk IIs. A night fighter (also all-weather fighter) is a Fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility They had a slightly longer fuselage than the Mk I and had modifications to house their airborne interception (AI) radar.
Firefly NF. Mk I
The NF. II was superseded by the Firefly NF Mk I "night fighter" variant.
Firefly T. Mk 1
Two-seat pilot training aircraft. Post-war conversion of the Firefly Mk I.
Firefly T. Mk 2
Armed operational training aircraft. Post-war conversion of the Firefly Mk I.
Firefly T. Mk 3
Used for Anti-submarine warfare training. Postwar conversion of the Firefly Mk I.
Firefly TT. Mk I
Postwar, a small number of Firefly Mk Is were converted into target tug aircraft.
Firefly Mk III
A Firefly Mk III was proposed, based on the Griffon 61 engine, but never entered production.
Firefly FR. Mk 4
Firefly Mk 5
Firefly NF. Mk 5
Firefly RF. Mk 5
Firefly Mk 6
Firefly TT. Mk 4/5/6
Small numbers of AS. 4/5/6s were converted into target tug aircraft.

Operators

Wartime

Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom

Post War

Flag of Australia Australia
Flag of Canada Canada
Flag of Denmark Denmark
Flag of Ethiopia Ethiopia
Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
Flag of Sweden Sweden
Flag of Thailand Thailand
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom

Survivors

There are approximately 24 Fairey Fireflies surviving worldwide, including three airworthy examples and at least one other being restored to flying condition. The Fleet Air Arm Museum possesses two Fireflies, the latest acquisition arriving in 2000 from the Imperial War Museum Duxford. Firefly WB271 was destroyed in July 2003 during an aerobatic air display at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire - Europe's largest display of vintage war planes. Following the grounding of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (Canada) Firefly AS 6 WH632, which was damaged in a crash and restored as a static museum display (painted as an RCN Firefly AS 5), there are only two airworthy Fireflies at present: AS 6s WD826 at the Royal Australian Navy Historic Flight, NAS Nowra NSW (Australia) and WB518, another former RAN machine, in the USA. See also List of attractions in Hamilton Ontario The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is a major Canadian aviation museum The latter was one of the first ten Mk 6s built, but retained the earlier Mk 5 fuselage; originally delivered to the Royal Australian Navy's 817 Squadron, it served in 816 Squadron before being retired and ending up as a memorial on a pole in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia. Purchased by American Eddie Kurdziel, a former U. S. Navy pilot and Northwest Airlines captain, after an extensive restoration WB518 made its first public appearance at the 2002 Oshkosh event.

Other survivors include: in Australia, Firefly AS 6 WD827 which was first owned by the Australian Air League, Blacktown, New South Wales, and now on display in the Moorabin Air Museum, Melbourne, Victoria; and AS 6 "WD828" is displayed on a pole at Griffith, New South Wales (painted as "WB518", which originally was displayed there); and AS 6 WJ109 is on display at Australia's Museum of Flight, Nowra, NSW. Another ex-Australian Flying, AS 6 WD833, is owned by Henry "Butch" Schroeder who moved the aircraft to Danville, Illinois USA for restoration, however the present wheareabouts of thisaircraft are unclear.

The Thai Air Force Museum has a Firefly Mk I on display.

Firefly on display at Griffith.
Firefly on display at Griffith.

A Firefly is on static display outside the Returned and Services League (RSL) club in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia.

As well as the Canadian Warplane Heritage's ex-Australian Firefly, two other Fireflies are known to exist in Canada: one is at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa and another is being restored at the Shearwater Aviation Museum at Eastern Passage (near Dartmouth), Nova Scotia. Both are Mk I models that served in the Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1954, after which they were sold to the Ethiopian Air Force. Following their discovery in the Ethiopian desert in 1993, they were repatriated to Canada.

See also: VX381 Fairey Firefly wreck - crash of two aircraft in Australia, 27 November 1956. VX381 is a Fairey Firefly aircraft that crashed on 27 November 1956 in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Events 1095 - Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Specifications (Mk I)

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

Specifications (Mk IV)

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Comparable aircraft

References

Notes

  1. ^ Thetford 1978, p. In Aerodynamics, wing loading is the loaded weight of the aircraft divided by the area of the wing The 20 mm caliber is a specific size of Cannon or Autocannon ammunition commonly the smallest caliber which is unambiguously a cannon (or more commonly today autocannon The Hispano-Suiza HS404 Autocannon was one of the most widely used aircraft weapons of the 20th century used by British, American The Fairey Fulmar was a British carrier-borne Fighter aircraft that served with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA during World War II. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout 164.
  2. ^ Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II. New York: Crescent Books, 1988. ISBN 0-517-67964-7.
  3. ^ Thetford 1978, p. 168.
  4. ^ Firefly TT.1 DT989 entry at the Warbirdregistry.org website
  5. ^ Firefly FB.1 MB410 entry at the Warbirdregistry.org website

Bibliography

External links


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