The Fairey Seafox was a 1930s

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

designed and built by Fairey for the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

. It was designed to be catapulted from the deck of a

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...

and served in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Sixty-six were built, with two finished without floats and used as landplanes.

Design and development

The Fairey Seafox was built to satisfy

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 ...

Specification S.11/32 for a two-seat spotter-reconnaissance floatplane. The first of two prototypes appeared in

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

, first flying on 27 May 1936,Taylor 1974, p.285. and the first of the 64 production aircraft were delivered in 1937.Taylor 1974, p.287. The flights were organised as

700 Naval Air Squadron 700 Naval Air Squadron (700 NAS) is a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) Maritime Unmanned Air System squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). Known as 700X Naval Air Squadron, where the 'X' is used to designate 'experimental', it is currently the R ...

of the Fleet Air Arm. The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

was of all-metal

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

construction, the wings being covered with metal on the

leading edge The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air;Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil sectio ...

, otherwise fabric. It was powered by a 16-cylinder 395 hp (295 kW) air-cooled

Napier Rapier The Napier Rapier was a British 16-cylinder H pattern air-cooled aero engine designed by Frank Halford and built by Napier & Son shortly before World War II. Design and development The Rapier was the first of Napier's H cylinder engines. The ...

H engine. It cruised at 106 mph (171 km/h), and had a range of 440 mi (710 km). The Seafox handled well but it was criticised for being underpowered, engine cooling was poor and landing speeds were higher than desired.

Operational history

In 1939, a Seafox played a part in the Battle of the River Plate against the German

pocket battleship The class was a series of three (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the class, , , and , were all stated to displace in a ...

, by

spotting Spotting may refer to: Medicine * Vaginal spotting, light bleeding that is not a menstrual period Photography: * :Observation hobbies * Aircraft spotting * Bus spotting * Car spotting * Train spotting Pastimes: * Spots (cannabis), a method o ...

for the naval gunners. Seafoxes operated during the early part of the war from the cruisers , , , , and and the armed merchant cruisers , and . They remained in service until 1943.

Operators

; *

Sturtivant and Ballance 1994, p. 362. **

702 Naval Air Squadron 702 Naval Air Squadron (702 NAS), also referred to as 702 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It most recently operated the Westland Lynx, as the Lynx Headquarters and Training Squadr ...

703 Naval Air Squadron 703 Naval Air Squadron (703 NAS) is a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). Since 2003, the squadron has formed the Royal Naval wing of the Defence Elementary Flying Training School / No. 3 Flying Tr ...

713 Naval Air Squadron 713 Naval Air Squadron (713 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which was disbanded in late 1945. It was first formed from 445 (Fleet Spotter Recomaissance) Flight in 1936 and operated wit ...

714 Naval Air Squadron 714 Naval Air Squadron (714 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). The unit was initially established as 714 (Catapult) Flight in July 1936. By 1939, it had evolved from a flight into a squa ...

716 Naval Air Squadron 716 Naval Air Squadron (716 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded in September 1945. 716 (Catapult) Flight was established in July 1936, originating from a segment of 44 ...

718 Naval Air Squadron 718 Naval Air Squadron (718 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) created on 15 July 1936 to serve as a Catapult Flight of the Fleet Air Arm. It was elevated to Squadron (aviation), squadron ...

754 Naval Air Squadron 754 Naval Air Squadron (754 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was active as an Observer Training Squadron from 1939 to 1944 as part of No. 2 Observer School, forming out of the Schoo ...

764 Naval Air Squadron 764 Naval Air Squadron (764 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It initially formed in April 1940, at HMS ''Daedalus'', RNAS Lee-on-Solent, as an Advance Seaplane Training Squadron. The Sq ...

765 Naval Air Squadron 765 Naval Air Squadron (765 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It formed at RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS ''Daedalus''), in May 1939, as a Seaplane School and Pool squadron. The squadron moved ...

773 Naval Air Squadron 773 Naval Air Squadron (773 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which was last active between September 1950 and March 1951. 773 Naval Air Squadron initially formed during June 1940, as a ...

Specification

References

Notes

Bibliography

*
For Light Reconnaissance
(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

). ''

Flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

'', 9 December 1937. pp. 570–574. * Mondey, David. ''The Hamlyn Concise Guide to British Aircraft of World War II''. London; New York: Aerospace Publishing Ltd., 1982. P.87. , . * Sturtivant, Ray and Balance, Theo. ''The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1994. . * Taylor, H.A. ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1974. .

External links

Fairey Seafox
– British Aircraft of World War II {{Fairey aircraft 1930s British military reconnaissance aircraft Floatplanes Seafox Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1936