AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 49 / 105

Plate 49 of 105 · Second World War · Two-seat carrier fighter and reconnaissance aircraft

Fairey Firefly

Firefly F.I, painted as Z2033, a Fairey Firefly F.I two-seat naval fighter built by Fairey in 1944 with a Rolls-Royce Griffon, used by 731 Naval Air Squadron at East Haven for deck-landing training and then for trials, sold to Sweden in 1949 as the target tug SE-BRD, flown back to Britain in 1964 as G-ASTL for the Skyfame museum at Staverton, bought by the Imperial War Museum in 1978, restored as a Mk I in the late 1980s and displayed at IWM Duxford, painted as it is shown there in the colours of DK431 of 1771 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Implacable, British Pacific Fleet, July 1945: Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky, British Pacific Fleet roundels with white bars on the fuselage and under the wings, a white ‘275’ under the pilot’s hood with a yellow map of Japan ahead of it, ‘Evelyn Tentions’ in white script under the exhausts and a white ‘75’ on the cowling, ‘ROYAL NAVY’ and ‘Z2033’ in black on the rear fuselage, a white ‘N’ on the fin, the raised pilot’s hood of the late Mk I, a black spinner and black three-blade Rotol propeller with yellow tips; it is displayed with its wings folded but is shown spread, and the camouflage pattern is approximated from photographs.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Z2033, a Fairey Firefly F.I two-seat naval fighter built by Fairey in 1944 with a Rolls-Royce Griffon, used by 731 Naval Air Squadron at East Haven for deck-landing training and then for trials, sold to Sweden in 1949 as the target tug SE-BRD, flown back to Britain in 1964 as G-ASTL for the Skyfame museum at Staverton, bought by the Imperial War Museum in 1978, restored as a Mk I in the late 1980s and displayed at IWM Duxford, painted as it is shown there in the colours of DK431 of 1771 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Implacable, British Pacific Fleet, July 1945: Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky, British Pacific Fleet roundels with white bars on the fuselage and under the wings, a white ‘275’ under the pilot’s hood with a yellow map of Japan ahead of it, ‘Evelyn Tentions’ in white script under the exhausts and a white ‘75’ on the cowling, ‘ROYAL NAVY’ and ‘Z2033’ in black on the rear fuselage, a white ‘N’ on the fin, the raised pilot’s hood of the late Mk I, a black spinner and black three-blade Rotol propeller with yellow tips; it is displayed with its wings folded but is shown spread, and the camouflage pattern is approximated from photographs. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.2 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Firefly F.I modelled here.

History

The Firefly

The Royal Navy believed a fighter flying far out over the sea needed a second man aboard to navigate and work the radio, and its first eight-gun monoplane fighter, the Fairey Fulmar of 1940, had one. The Fulmar was sturdy but slow, and in 1940 the Admiralty drew up specification N.5/40 for a faster successor. H. E. Chaplin’s team at Fairey designed a stressed-skin low-winged monoplane round the new Rolls-Royce Griffon, with the radiator under the nose, the observer in a separate cockpit behind the wing, four 20 mm Hispano cannon, and wings that folded back by hand for stowage below deck. The prototype, Z1826, first flew from Fairey’s Great West Aerodrome, near the site of today’s Heathrow, on 22 December 1941.

Its most distinctive feature was the Youngman flap, a broad flap that wound out on tracks behind the wing. Partly extended it gave the Firefly a much tighter turn, further out it shortened the take-off, and fully lowered it made the slow, steady approach a deck landing demanded. The Firefly F.I joined No. 1770 Naval Air Squadron in October 1943, and in July 1944 the squadron’s Fireflies from HMS Indefatigable went into action against the battleship Tirpitz in her Norwegian fjord. Early aircraft had a low pilot’s hood; later Mk Is had a raised one that gave a better view over the long nose.

With the British Pacific Fleet the Firefly attacked the oil refineries at Palembang in Sumatra in January 1945, and in July and August its squadrons struck airfields, shipping and railways in Japan itself. After the war it was reworked as a night fighter, an anti-submarine aircraft and a trainer, and the FR.5 flew ground-attack sorties from British and Australian carriers throughout the Korean War. In all about 1,700 were built. Fireflies served the navies of Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and India, flew as target tugs in Sweden, and ended their days in Britain as radio-controlled target drones.

This airframe

Firefly I Z2033, painted as DK431 “275/N”

Z2033The airframe modelled

Z2033 was built by Fairey in 1944 as a Firefly I. In 1945 it joined No. 731 Naval Air Squadron at East Haven, near Dundee, which taught pilots to land on carriers, until a taxiing accident sent it back to Fairey for repair. From 1946 to 1949 it was used for trials at airfields around Britain, and in 1949 Fairey sold it to Sweden, where Svensk Flygtjänst converted it into a civil target tug, SE-BRD. It flew back to Britain in 1964, registered G-ASTL, and joined the Skyfame Aircraft Museum at Staverton; when Skyfame closed in 1978 the Imperial War Museum bought it and moved it to Duxford. In the late 1980s it was restored to Mk I standard and painted as DK431 of No. 1771 Squadron, HMS Implacable, flown by Lt Cdr W. R. J. MacWhirter on ground-attack sorties over Japan in July 1945; its nose name, “Evelyn Tentions”, is a play on “evil intentions”. After several years on loan to the Fleet Air Arm Museum it is back on display at Duxford. The model shows it as displayed: Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky, British Pacific Fleet roundels with white bars on the fuselage and under the wings, a white “275” under the raised pilot’s hood with a yellow map of Japan ahead of it, a white “75” on the cowling, “ROYAL NAVY” and “Z2033” on the rear fuselage, a white “N” on the fin, and a black propeller with yellow tips. It is displayed with its wings folded; the model shows them spread, and the camouflage pattern is approximated from photographs.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Firefly in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 105 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.