Fairey Firefly aircraft have a long history and numerous versions of the aeroplane appeared. The Firefly used by the Fleet Air Arm during the latter part of World War II was the second generation of an earlier biplane aircraft with the same name developed in the 1920s.

The precursor to the Firefly was the Fairey Fulmar, but the Firefly outpaced her predecessor in speed, aerodynamics and firepower.

There were three distinctive groups in the type of Firefly, with the Mks 1, 4, and 7 proving the significant evolutionary points in the make-up of the plane. Even within the smaller groupings, the sequence of developments and naming is somewhat convoluted.

Within the first development period (Mks 1-3), the first to appear in serious production numbers in March 1943 was the observer- navigated day fighter, the F1, which was followed by the FR1 with a 'pod' under the engine holding the ASH radar for detecting ships and submarines.

The next version of the Firefly on the scene was part of the Mk2 series, a night-fighter variant called the NF2, with two small radomes mounted on the wings with the air- interception (AI) Mk10 radar installed.

But only 37 of the NF2 were built once it was found that a compact radar could be fitted beneath the centre section of the FR1 without structural changes. And so the NF1 was created but later in chronological sequence than the NF2.

The other versions of the Mk1 included the F1 converted to FR1 standard with the addition of the ASH radar and named the F1A, the T1 dual-control trainer, and the TT1 target-towing gunnery training aircraft.

Joining the NF2 within the Mk2 generation was the T2 dual-control fighter-trainer. The Mk3 was a prototype that did not go into production, an F1-conversion powered by a Griffon 61 engine. And finally the T3 was another training version of the craft.

To hark back to the earliest F1 variant, power was provided by a 1,730hp Rolls-Royce Griffon IIB 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine and later the 1,990hp Griffon XII.

The design was an advance on the Fulmar with fully-retractable Fairey-Youngman flaps that meant the Firefly had the necessary low-speed handling properties for carrier-borne work. Firepower was provided by four 20mm guns fixed in the wings, but there was the potential to carry eight 60lb rocket-projectiles or two 1,000lb bombs beneath the wings.

The two-seater fighter-reconnaissance Firefly had a maximum speed of 316mph at 14,000ft, 40mph faster than the earlier Fulmar's top speed. It operated with a service ceiling of 28,000ft and a maximum range of 1,300 miles.

The aircraft was 37ft 7in in length with a wingspan of 44ft 6in that could be folded down to 13ft 6in, a manual process with hydraulic locking where the wings folded upwards from the centre on rear-spar hinges then back to lie along the fuselage.

Picture Fleet Air Arm Museum

(Featured in Navy News March 2003)