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Fairey Gannet

1953 COLD WAR

The Story of Fairey Gannet

The Fairey Gannet was a professional anti-submarine platform primarily used by the Royal Navy Fleet Aviation during the Cold War. This is an aircraft design derived from a 1945 British Admiralty (GR. 17/45) program that required an advanced shipborne anti-submarine (ASW) platform.

Fairey Airways and Blackburn Aircraft responded with the Fairey 17 and B-54 prototypes, respectively. Both have similar exterior designs, with traditional monoplane wings, a solid reinforced fuselage, internal bomb bays and tricycle landing gear. The name "gannet" comes from the large seabird species found in the North Atlantic, southern Africa and the South Pacific (near Australia and New Zealand).

Their predatory nature allows them to dive into the water at high speed in search of unsuspecting prey, and continue their hunt underwater.

The Blackburn B-54 was equipped with a piston engine, while the successor prototype, the B-88, was equipped with a gas turbine engine driving a large radius counter-rotating propeller system. The internal bomb bay was attached to the bottom of the hull. The pilot and his observer sat in tandem under the framed canopy. The rear wing is conventional, with a vertical rear wing with two horizontal planes. The radar scanner is mounted in a cylindrical bracket at the bottom of the tail and retracted into the fuselage.

The first flight was recorded on September 20, 1949. Only three Blackburn prototypes were produced in total before the program was shelved in favor of Fairey products.

Fairey's design (attributed to engineer H. E. Chaplin) used Armstrong Siddeley Mamba gas turbine engines in two configurations, hence the collective name "Double Mamba" or "Dual Mamba". This arrangement features engines in side-by-side seating groups, connected to a gearbox that drives counter-rotating propellers mounted on the aircraft's nose. The engines discharged from elongated ports above the trailing edges of the wings and on the sides of the rear fuselage.

The aircraft can be flown with just one engine in the event of a breakdown or to save fuel, or it can run on kerosene or diesel fuel, unlike the more volatile, higher-octane fuels common to piston-engine carrier aircraft in the United States. time. The initial crew consisted of a pilot sitting in the front cockpit and an observer sitting in the rear cockpit directly behind the pilot.

Like the Blackburn design, the Fairey 17 has a retractable radome assembly at the bottom of the stern and an internal bomb bay compartment under the fuselage. The wings were tucked out of the main landing gear legs. As the design is intended for use by British Airways, the wings are designed to fold up for optimal storage. As a result, the assembly takes on a very distinct "Z" shape, folding at two hinge points and effectively "stacking" the wing vertically on top of itself.

The front legs of the tricycle landing gear give the aircraft a distinct "nose up" resting look.

After the prototype was developed, the design was slightly modified to include a third crew member as an additional observer. This added a third separate cockpit to the layout, located aft of the midship behind the wings, but in front of the empennage.

This addition was not without effect, of course, and was found to disturb the airflow over the tail stabilizer, forcing the use of small "fins" on the sides of the fuselage behind the wing assemblies to solve the problem. The Fairey 17 made its first flight on September 19, 1949. On June 19, 1950, the prototype landed for the first time on the deck of HMS Illustrious. Satisfied with the results, the British authorities ordered the production type Fairey "Gannet" AS Mark 1 (AS.

Mk I) by the end of 1953. Deliveries of the first 100 aircraft began in April 1954. In the same year, 1955, an improved trainer variant was introduced and accepted and put into service, designated the T Mark 2 (T. Mk II).

The first Gannet squadron of Fleet Aviation became the 826 NAS, based on the HMS Eagle.

Production From 1953 to 1959, Fairey eventually delivered 348 prototypes.

The AS Mark 1 (AS. Mk I) was the main three-seater production model, of which 180 prototypes were built. The T Mark 2 (T. Mk II) became the primary training variant of the AS 1 production model. 35 of this type were produced. The AS Mark 4 (AS.

Mk 4) continued as an improved anti-submarine platform with a revised higher power engine and was essentially the 170th production model of the AS. Mk I. produced 82 examples. COD Mark 4 (COD. Mk 4) is AS. The Mk 4 production model has been redesigned for use as a carrier-based transport aircraft.

T Mark 5 (T. Mk 5) is the coach version of AS. Production model Mk 4, although only 8 examples of this type were delivered. A. Mk 6 is AS. Mk 4 models feature new and improved radar systems and improved electronics. ECM. The Mk 6 is a variant of the ground-based electronic countermeasures (ECM) Gannet. The last gannet produced was AEW.

The Mk 3 has been used by the Royal Navy as an Airborne Early Warning Platform (AEW) since 1958. Eventually 44 aircraft of this type were built, with the first recorded flight in August 1958. Early warning aircraft. The Mk 3 was equipped with four flights of the 849th Squadron.

By the mid-1960s, the Fairey Gannet line - and their respective missions - were replaced by the Westland Whirlwind line of land-based and ship-based helicopters. The main role of Gannets is now fully transformed to serve as electronic countermeasures platforms, while some have been redesigned as dedicated transports for passengers and cargo.

Around this time, the system was purchased by foreign buyers including Australia, West Germany and Indonesia. The last Fairey Gannets finally decommissioned on December 15, 1978, ending her long but useful tenure with several naval parties.

Fairey Gannet's largest operator is the Royal Navy's fleet aviation. This model is used in 700, 703, 703X, 719, 724, 725, 737, 744, 796, 810, 812, 814, 815, 816, 817, 820, 824, 825, 826, 831, 847, 849 Naval Air Squadrons . Also on the HMS Ark Royal are the B Flight and the D Flight on the HMS Eagle, as well as the 1840th Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.

The Fairey Gannet is operated by the 724th, 725th, 816th and 817th Squadrons of the Royal Australian Navy. The German Navy also used the model in the 2nd and 3rd Naval Air Squadrons, respectively, until 1963 and 1966, when the Indonesian Navy also purchased it in small quantities.