Fairey Swordfish | Darling of the Fleet Air Arm

the fairy swordfish is one of the most if not the most famous biplanes to take part in the second world war in an age of sleek monoplanes and the first stirrings of the jet age it looked comically out of place but this plucky little aircraft went on to earn a great name for itself the development of the swordfish can be traced back to the fairy s930 and the tsr-1 the s930 was imaginatively named after the air ministry specification for which it was built this specification called for a torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft fairey submitted two designs to the air ministry in october of 1930 of which one was produced it was an unequal span biplane design with a fabric covered fuselage comprised of stainless steel tubing and strips it was powered by a liquid-cooled rolls royce kestrel v12 engine that gave 525 horsepower this engine wants to feature steam cooling based on earlier experimental successes with the condensers located on the upper center section of the engine its armament consisted of a 7.7 millimeter vickers machine gun in the port combing which was operated by the pilot and a 7.7 millimeter lewis gun on a very high speed mounting for the rear gunner and it could also carry various payloads under its lower wing this aircraft was given the serial s1706 and flew for the first time on the 22nd of february 1934 taking off from the great west aerodrome this prototype was initially tested as a land plane having a divided undercarriage fitted with low pressure tyres and a tail wheel but after these tests it was converted to a float plane in this configuration it featured a 30 and a half foot long central float and a pair of stabilizing wing floats taking off for the first time in this guys in january of 1935. overall its water handling characteristics were well received but there was criticism of some of its airborne handling the feedback from pilots about controlling the aircraft described it as heavy but positive at all but low speeds however they had to constantly apply corrective rudder due to the lack of a rudder bias gear during this time and indeed before the other progenitor of the swordfish the tsr-1 was also being worked on surprisingly this new aircraft was completed yearly a year before the s930 aircraft was flown for the first time the reason for this was that the tsr-1 at the time designated f-1875 had originally been designed as a private venture for the greek navy it had been designed to meet a variety of requirements but unfortunately greek interest in the project had gradually diminished fairy then decided to approach the air ministry with this design proposing it as a solution for the need for a spotter reconnaissance aircraft this plane first took to the skies on the 21st of march 1933. at the time it was powered by a 14-cylinder sidley panther radial engine that gave out 625 horsepower however in june of that year this was swapped out for a 635 horsepower 9-cylinder bristol pegasus radial engine and it was then that the aircraft was redesignated as the tsr-1 the s930 and the tsr-1 prototypes looked somewhat similar in appearance the main difference being that the tsr-1 had a radial engine and a spattered undercarriage unfortunately the tsr-1 was to be lost in an accident during its testing chris stanland the test pilot was putting the aircraft through a series of spinning tests initially the aircraft could not be persuaded to spin but on the second or third attempt it changed its mind and decided to enter an incredibly nasty flat spin keeping the nose almost on the horizon itself after attempting and failing to regain control stanland attempted to bail from the aircraft however the lateral motion merely threw him into the rear pilot's seat after this moment of aerial leapfrogging he was then able to properly bail out and safely got clear before this unfortunate mishap the air ministry had recently issued a new specification dubbed s15 33 which was a combination of specifications s930 and m130 calling for the development of a two-seat torpedo bomber and spotting aircraft though the tsr-1 had been lost in its accident the test results had been very promising and so a second prototype was developed as the tsr-2 with this aircraft representing the birth of what was to become the fairy swordfish the tsr-2 had some minor external changes compared to its predecessor it had an additional bay in the fuselage which necessitated lengthening and it also had spin recovery strikes ahead of the leading edges of the tail plane for obvious reasons the upper wing now had a sweep back angle of 4 degrees to compensate for the lengthening of the fuselage and the fuselage itself though was similar to its original design with fabric covering steel strips and struts the tsr-2 was powered by a more powerful version of the bristol pegasus engine that powered the tsr-1 and it performed its first flight on the 17th of april 1934 once again flown by stanland initial contract trials went on for two months and then the prototype was flown to modelshim for further testing then r.i.e farnborough for catapult trials and then hms courageous for deck landing tests after this the aircraft had its spattered landing gear replaced with twin floats for water tests at hanball this began on the 10th of november 1934. on the 1st of january 1935 it then went to felix stowe and then in february it crashed during tests at the torpedo trials unit at gosport this was not the end for the tsr-2 prototype it was rebuilt after this and the aircraft would carry on as a development aircraft for the air ministry's directorate of technical development as for the test reports themselves the results were mostly favorable the elevators and ailerons were remarked as being light and effective at all speeds and although the rudder itself felt quite heavy it too was effective there were some criticisms however some aspects of its stalling behavior were less than desirable especially when it came to the rudder and it had quite a slow spin recovery time despite additional measures being taken the aircraft also exhibited some instability when diving with an aft center of gravity post-examination adjustments were made to the range of elevator movement and subsequent testing and reports at modelshim deemed the aircraft to now be acceptable the production version of the tsr-2 was given the name swordfish by the air ministry and an order was placed in spring of 1935 for three pre-production aircraft and a production batch of 86 swordfish mark ones in this new specification the bristol engine now powered a three-blade metal propeller instead of the two blade propellers that were tried on the original prototypes power output was still 690 horsepower but its performance of course would vary depending on the aircraft's configuration the swordfish had a maximum speed of miles an hour at 5 000 feet in its spotting configuration or 143 miles an hour when loaded with a torpedo its range was 624 miles without the torpedo or 522 miles with it and the flight endurance would either be six and a half hours or five and a half hours following the same pattern in terms of overall dimensions the mark 1 had a length of 35 feet 8 inches a wingspan of 45 feet 6 inches and a maximum height of 12 feet 4 inches like the prototypes the mark 1 had a forward firing 7.7 vickers gun that was operated by the pilots and the gunner would operate another 7.7 vickers or lewis gun depending on exact model that was on a very high speed mounting in terms of suspended armament it could carry one 18-inch torpedo or one 1500 pound c-mine under the fuselage alternatively the swordfish could also carry up to 1500 pounds worth of bombs or death charges on wing racks the swordfish began to reach squadrons of the fleet air arm in july of 1936 where the number 825 squadron of the aircraft carrier hms glorious taking delivery of the first units to replace their existing complement of fairy seals by the outbreak of world war ii the fleet air arm had 13 operational frontline swordfish squadrons of those 13 12 were operating with five aircraft carriers hms arc royal had four squadrons courageous had two eagle had two glorious had two and furious had two in addition to this there were float plane variants of the swordfish that operated at sea with two catapult flight units though serviceable and indeed they would go on to earn distinction during the war the float plane variant of the swordfish still had a couple of problems they struggled to taxi well in the water with wind speeds more than 20 miles an hour and a 1936 report of the pre-production floatplane tests commented that the aircraft took a long time to get up to speed and that during this time the propeller picked up a lot of water aside from some general fleet protection and convoy escort missions the swordfish would not see much in the way of active service until the arrival of the norwegian campaign despite this delayed start the swordfish would go on to quickly rack up a number of great firsts for the fleet air arm on the 11th of april 1940 swordfish from number 816 and 818 squadrons took off from hms furious and embarked on the first coordinated torpedo attack to be launched from an aircraft carrier rather embarrassingly their targets a group of cruisers that were meant to be moored in trondheim weren't actually there just a pair of destroyers but they carried out the attack nonetheless and scored a hit on one of the destroyers the rest of the strike being hampered by shallow water a few days later on the 13th of april a floatplane swordfish catapulted from hms wallspite scored the fleet air arms first u-boat kill of the war the aircraft had been launched to provide spotting for the operations at narvik piloted by pilot officer fc rice and with lieutenant commander w m brown as the observer the swordfish provided excellent spotting for war spite and her entourage helping them sink seven destroyers rice and brown then bombed one of the destroyers themselves which then either sunk or was scuttled later before spotting the u-64 sitting at anchor they scored at least one direct hit on the submarine with the bombs and it sank almost immediately during the following fortnight around narvik and the local waters the swordfish would see continuous action often in bad weather and under the threat of colliding with norway's aggressive coastal terrain that same month back on the home front the swordfish began to be involved with mine laying operations under raf coastal command a task that they would actually become quite famous for in the beginning these operations were limited to 8-1-2 squadron but by the end of may four squadrons were involved in this work mine laying by day and by night targeting german-held port waters and also bombing the ports themselves by day their targets were expanded to oil storage logistics depots and invasion barges after the fall of france when a german invasion of britain seemed to only be a matter of when not if over in the mediterranean swordfish would perform another british first upon italy's entry into the war the first british air raid against italy was made by swordfish in an operation that could have been described as comedy had the situation been less depressing nine swordfish from number 767 training squadron carrying appropriated and pre-fused french bombs flew from the south of france to raid genoa on the 14th of june speaking of france the swordfish would also feature prominently during the controversial attack on merzel kabir and i apologize if i pronounced that wrong aircraft flying from hms arc royal torpedoed and severely damaged the battlecruiser dunkirk in what became a practical demonstration that torpedo bombers could strike accurately and effective against capital ships at harbor this demonstration would be repeated with much enthusiasm a few weeks later during the famous knight attack at toronto swordfish flying from hms illustrious carried out the attack on november the 11th 1940 after a couple of operational delays success was dependent not only on surprise but constant photographic reconnaissance on the target which lasted almost up to the last hours prior to the attack the swordfish achieved almost complete surprise attacking with a mix of bombs and torpedoes the result was one battleship sunk two more heavily damaged two cruisers heavily damaged two destroyers damaged and two auxiliary vessels sunk the operation was so successful that japanese would use reports of the attack to help with their own planning of their own torpedo attacks upon pearl harbor swordfish operating out of malta would distinguish themselves in another way in enemy commerce raiding the aircraft would be no match for enemy escort fighters and so they timed their flights so that they would arrive over the convoys by the cover of darkness despite no more than 27 swordfish operating out of malta at any one time they managed to sink on average 50 000 tons of shipping every month over a period of 9 months the swordfish featured in two of the war's more famous naval events at least in terms of the european war in may 1941 swordfish were involved in the attack on the german battleship bismarck after being engaged by hms prince of wales and hms hood bismarck was attacked from swordfish operating out of the carrier hms victorious the weather was not in their favor for the initial attack with very poor visibility but a single torpedo hit was confirmed a few days later the swordfish had another go at the battleship and scored at least two more torpedo hits damaging the battleship's steering though they did not outright sink the bismarck the contribution made by the swordfish during the battle can certainly not be discounted the other naval event that featured them was on the february the 12th 1942 in what would become known as the channel dash this did not go quite so well for the swordfish six aircraft from the rebuilding 825 squadron their carrier arc royal having been sunk the previous november were called upon as the only available torpedo bombers to attack the german heavy cruisers that were racing through the channel to their home ports led by lieutenant commander esmend the swordfish were meant to have fighter cover but their escorts did not appear in the poor weather conditions of a 700 foot cloud base and 2000 yard visibility despite this they pressed on approaching in two sub-flights of three aircraft the first went in under heavy anti-aircraft fire and was set upon by german fighters that tore them to pieces the second subflight was seen going in for the attack but was never heard from again all surviving members of this attack would be decorated and lieutenant commander esmen was posthumously awarded the victoria cross the first member of the fleet air arm to receive such honours this marked the last time that swordfish would be used for torpedo attack improvements in anti-aircraft gunnery and the complete performance superiority of enemy fighters rendered them far too vulnerable and they were withdrawn from this role completely the swordfish would continue to be used in the anti-submarine role though as a hunter and as a killer with some being equipped with asv radar and the others with depth charges the mark ii swordfish arrived in 1943 it had a strengthened lower wing with a metal underside this allowed it to be equipped with armor-piercing rockets on the underwing rails in the same year the mark iii also arrived which in addition to the modified lower wing was designed with built-in anti-shipping radar from august 1942 swordfish played an important role in escorting the russian convoys on one of these convoys swordfish from the carriers striker and vindex totaled over 1 000 operational hours of submarine patrol in just 10 days by the spring of 1943 rockets were becoming regularly used and the first successes with the new weapon was scored on the 23rd of may when a swordfish from 819 squadron operating from the escort carrier archer used rockets to sink u-752 800 miles west of ireland by the end of the war swordfish were responsible for sinking 14 u-boats the last operational squadron equipped with swordfish number 836 was disbanded on the 21st of may 1945 despite its antiquated looks and slow speed the fairy swordfish had operated successfully throughout the entire length of the war even out living aircraft that had been designed to replace it several swordfish survive to this day but only one of them is the famous mark 1 model luckily this soul survivor is also airworthy and has been regularly flying since 2008. 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Channel: Rex's Hangar

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Keywords: fleet air arm, fairey swordfish, fairey swordfish documentary, fairey swordfish vs bismarck, bismarck, royal air force, fairey aviation, fairey albacore, aviation, ww2 documentary, world war two, royal navy, HMS Ark Royal, Regia Marina, Battle of Taranto, Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, home front, battle of france, fairey swordfish war thunder, aircraft development, rex's hangar, battleship, swordfish, torpedo bomber, torpedo, naval torpedo, torpedo attack

Id: Y7km1F_6eqM

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 04 2022