The Fairey Firefly was a British
fighter of the 1920s from
Fairey Aviation
The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes, Hillingdon, Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft ...
.
It was a single-seat, single-engine
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 ...
of mixed construction.
Development
The Firefly was a private-venture design, penned by
Marcel Lobelle
Marcel Lobelle (–1967) was a Belgian aeronautical engineer who spent his professional career working in Britain.
He was born in Kortrijk, Flanders, and fought in the Belgian Army at the start of World War I, with the 1st Regiment of Grenadier ...
. It was first flown on 9 November 1925 by
Norman Macmillan.
The
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...
did not pursue the project, partly because of the American
Curtiss engine used
and partly because of its wooden construction
and the Firefly I did not enter production.
Specifications (Firefly I)
See also
References
{{Fairey aircraft
1920s British fighter aircraft
Firefly I
Biplanes
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1925