The Fairey Flycatcher was a British single-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

made by

Fairey Aviation Company The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military a ...

which served from 1923 to 1934. It was produced with a conventional undercarriage for

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use, although this could be exchanged for floats for catapult use aboard

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Design and development

The Flycatcher was designed to meet the requirements of Specification N6/22 for a carrier and floatplane fighter to replace the Gloster Nightjar, powered by either the

Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar The Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar was an aircraft engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. The Jaguar was a petrol-fuelled air-cooled 14-cylinder two-row radial engine design. The Jaguar III was first used in 1923, followed in 1925 by the Jaguar ...

or the

Bristol Jupiter The Bristol Jupiter was a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developments turn ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...

s. Both Fairey and

Parnall Parnall was a British aircraft manufacturer that evolved from a wood-working company before the First World War to a significant designer of military and civil aircraft into the 1940s. It was based in the west of England and was originally known a ...

submitted designs to meet this specification, with Fairey producing the Flycatcher, and Parnall the

Parnall Plover The Parnall Plover was a British single-seat naval fighter aircraft of the 1920s. Designed and built by George Parnall & Co. for use on Royal Navy aircraft carriers, it was ordered into small-scale production but after extensive evaluation, t ...

.Taylor 1974, p. 113. The first of three prototype Flycatchers made its maiden flight on 28 November 1922, powered by a Jaguar II engine,Thetford 1978, p. 119. although it was later fitted with a Jupiter IV.Taylor 1974, p. 114. Small orders were placed for both the Flycatcher (for nine aircraft) and Plover (for ten aircraft) to allow service evaluation.Taylor 1974, pp. 114–115. After trials, the Flycatcher was ordered for full production.

Technical description

The Flycatcher was a remarkable design for its time, and was one of the earliest aircraft specifically designed for operation from

aircraft carriers An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a n ...

. Flaps ran the entire trailing edges of both wings. These could be lowered for landing and takeoff, providing the aircraft with the capability of using only of deck space "to come and go." The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

was made of both wood and metal with fabric covering. A rather cumbersome undercarriage could be changed for twin floats or a wheel/float combination for amphibian use. Hydraulic wheel brakes were added to assist the aircraft to stop in the confined space of an aircraft carrier. Arrestor hooks on the undercarriage spreader bar were a feature of early models, designed to engage the

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strung out on the carrier deck.

Operational history

Production of the Flycatcher began at Fairey's Hayes factory in 1923, entering service with No. 402 Flight

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. The Flycatcher was flown from all

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carriers of its era. Some 192 were produced. A typical deployment was on the aircraft carrier , where 16 Flycatchers served alongside 16

Blackburn Ripon The Blackburn T.5 Ripon was a carrier-based torpedo bomber and reconnaissance biplane designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft. It was the basis for both the license-produced Mitsubishi B2M and the improved ...

s and 16 reconnaissance aircraft. Very popular with pilots, the Flycatchers were easy to fly and very manoeuvrable. It was in these aircraft that the Fleet Air Arm developed the combat tactics used in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The Flycatcher saw service with the

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and

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fleets. During its service on the

station, the Flycatcher was active against Chinese

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

in the waters near

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Variants

;Flycatcher Mk I : Single-seat fighter aircraft for the Royal Navy. ;Flycatcher Mk II : Prototype of planned replacement for Flycatcher I. Fundamentally a completely different aircraft from the Flycatcher I, the all-metal Flycatcher II was first flown on 4 October 1926 by Norman Macmillan, competing against the Gloster Gnatsnapper,

Hawker Hoopoe The Hawker Hoopoe was a British prototype naval fighter aircraft designed and built in 1927 by Hawker Aircraft. Service trials found the aircraft to be unsatisfactory, and it was superseded by the same company's Nimrod design. Design and deve ...

Armstrong Whitworth Starling The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.14 Starling was a prototype British single-seat biplane fighter developed for the Royal Air Force in the late 1920s which unsuccessfully competed against the Bristol Bulldog. Development The A.W.14 Starling was de ...

and Vickers Type 123/141 to meet specification N.21/26. Specification later abandoned. No production.

Operators

; *

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

*** 402 Flight *** 403 Flight *** 406 Flight *** 801 Squadron **

High Speed Flight RAF The RAF High Speed Flight, sometimes known as '' 'The Flight' '', was a small flight of the Royal Air Force (RAF) formed for the purpose of competing in the Schneider Trophy contest for racing seaplanes during the 1920s. The flight was together ...

Museum exhibits

No aircraft survives, but the

Fleet Air Arm Museum The Fleet Air Arm Museum is devoted to the history of British naval aviation. It has an extensive collection of military and civilian aircraft, aero engines, models of aircraft and Royal Navy ships (especially aircraft carriers), and paintin ...

holds a replica Flycatcher that was built in 1977. Registered as G-BEYB, it was flown until 1996, when it was put on static display. It is currently held in the museum's reserve collection, to which the public has only occasional access."Fairey Flycatcher (replica) (S1287)."
''Fleet Air Arm Museum.'' Retrieved: 30 October 2012.

Specifications (Flycatcher I)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* "'Booted' Flycatchers". ''Air Enthusiast'', No. 83, September–October 1999, p. 78. * Crosby, Francis. ''The World Encyclopedia of Naval Aircraft''. Lorenz Books, 2008. . * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1992. . * Taylor, H. A. ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1974. . * Thetford, Owen. ''British Naval Aircraft since 1912''. London: Putnam, Fourth edition, 1978. .

External links

Fairey Flycatcher
– British Aircraft Directory

{{Fairey aircraft 1920s British fighter aircraft Flycatcher Carrier-based aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Floatplanes Aircraft first flown in 1922