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Fairey Firefly

The Fairey Firefly was designed to fulfill specification N.5/40 to replace the Fairey Fulmar as a two seat fleet reconnaissance fighter and was designed by Herbert Eugene Chaplin. To give this heavy single engined fighter a reasonable performance the Rolls Royce Griffon which was expected to deliver over 2000 HP was selected as the powerplant. Due to the Fleet Arms desperate lack of an effective fighter 200 examples of the Firefly were ordered off the drawing board. The Firefly prototype was eventually flown on 22nd December 1941 by Chris Staniland.

The first Firefly squadron, No 1770 recieved its first aircraft in September 1943 and first saw action in May 1944 when aircraft from HMS Indefatigable attacked shore defences protecting the German battleship Tirpitz. By the end of 1944 three Firefly squadrons were operational and were posted to the far east to take part in the inavasion of the Japanese mainland, to be joined by two more before the end of hostilities. The Fairey Firefly Mk1 eventually equipped a total of 21 operational and 47 second-line squadrons.

A program of cleaning up the airframe was initiated by Fairey's resulting in a new version the FR Mk4 which had the radiators mounted in the wing instead of under the chin, clipped wings and a 2,100 HP Rolls Royce Griffon 74 driving a four bladed Rotol propellor. The Mk5 was externally identical but featured different internal equipment. During the Korean war the Fairey Firefly was used in the strike role armed with bombs and rockets.

The Fairey Firefly was a reliable and popular machine with its pilots and was widely exported. Today their are a number of Firefly's in flying condition although the Royal Navy historic flight lost their example in a crash at Duxford in 2003.

Performance, (Mk5)

A top speed of 386 mph at 14,000 ft
Weight: 16,096 lb's fully loaded.
Powerplant: One Rolls Royce Griffon 74 of 2,100 Hp
Armament: Four 20mm Hispano Cannon and a variety of underwing stores including bombs and rockets