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Fairey Seafox

1937 WORLD WAR 2

History

From 1917, Fairey Airways supplied a number of aircraft to the Royal Navy in a relationship from World War I (1914-1918) to World War II (1939-1945). In 1932, the Air Department issued Specification S. 11/32, requiring the use of seaplanes by the Fleet Aviation (FAA) on Royal Navy light cruisers.

Fairey responded with the later "Seafox" and followed with two prototypes, the first of which came out in 1936. The first flight was recorded on May 27, 1936.

The aircraft is designed around a seaplane configuration, and its landing gear consists of two pontoons for water landing, while take-off is performed by an onboard catapult (recovery will be via an onboard crane). The purpose of Seafox is not as fleet protection, but as a reconnaissance platform to serve gunners on cruisers, thereby improving their range accuracy.

When pushed into war, British light cruisers were tasked with hunting down enemy participants, and any vista from above was especially valuable.

Seafox uses a biplane configuration and reinforced metal landing gear to handle the rigors of catapult launches. Plain weave fabric covers the wing and tail surfaces, creating a lightweight design and easy-to-manufacture product. A support net connects the float to the bottom of the hull. The plane required a crew of two, with the pilot sitting in the open-air cockpit behind the front engines, while the observer hid under the canopy behind the pilot. The engine of choice became the Napier "Rapier" VI 16-cylinder air-cooled piston 16-cylinder model rated at 395 hp miles.

The weapon is primarily defensive (and optional) - a 7.7mm Lewis machine gun suitable for rear observers. Some sea foxes were later retrofitted with lower wing mounts to carry 4 x 20 lb light bombs or tracer rounds.

The Seafox entered service in April 1937 and continues to stock approximately 11 fleet aviation squadrons. In addition to the two completed prototypes, total production reached 64. Although British sea foxes served in the Australian and New Zealand navies for some time, none of them were exported.

In practice, the type proved very practical, but was notorious for drawbacks such as underpowered engines (which also had cooling issues) and tricky handling - limitations that could go unnoticed in times of total war, however.

When Britain declared war on Germany, the Sea Fox had a total strength of 32 men and the front was immediately pushed into active action against German naval targets. The Sea Fox played a role in the South Atlantic search for the German Ironclad Admiral Graf Spee, an enemy ship that was eventually chased by the British Navy to Montevideo, neutral Uruguay, before sinking in December 1939.

Additionally, Seafoxes served the FAA well in the ensuing war years -- providing much-needed eyes on the horizon. Some emerged when Crete was evacuated in 1941, and their type remained in use until about 1943, when more modern products were finally adopted by the FAA.