FLIGHT,

December 7th, ig44

*ioo

A Review of the Latest Fleet Air Arm Fighter Reconnaissance Aircraft

H E Fairey Aviation Company have given to this country some very fine aircraft during the past two decades, and reference to some of them was made in the November gth issue of Flight wherein the latest Fairey machine, the Firefly. 1 was introduced^This is not perhaps, the place where dealing with the factual aspects of an aircraft, refer ence is best made to its operational history however short that history may be. Nevertheless, the Firefly has done some really excellent work with the Fleet Air Arm in the past months. It found the Tirpitz after that now deceased vessel had been moved, and Lancasters delivered some 12,000 lb. bombs as a result. This is one of the incidents of the grand score the Firefly is piling up for itself. One can say without reserve that, when the news can be disclosed, the work done by the Fleet Air Arm Firefly will be among the high lights of the Royal N a v y ' s air operations. The Fleet Air Arm have beeii waiting for a machine such as the Firefly for a very considerable time. The vagaries of the work they have to do, combined with

FAIREY

the limitations imposed by carrier operation, make a set oi conditions imposed upon the aircraft designer which might well cause the poor man to say " I give u p . " However, Mr. H. E. Chaplin, fortunately, did not think of giving up, with the result that the Navy at last has an aircraft capable of staid and sedate inquisitive passage which in a trice can be transformed into flashing speed. Although the temper of the Firefly is capable of such extremes, she nevertheless remains perfectly mannered and sweetly responsive to the will of her pilot. In short, she is a perfect lady with venomous possibilities. One cannot help but admire the ingenuity of the designer in providing it in the severe limitations imposed by a two-seater aircraft of really clean lines. It is capable of very extended range, housing all the multifarious equipment necessary for its work, and yet withal having a maximum performance eclipsed only by the quickest of the latest single-seater fighters. In addition to this, the speedrange is unapproached by any other aircraft. For this quality credit must be

FIREFLY