From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Fairey Seafox

1930s British reconnaissance floatplane

Summary

1930s British reconnaissance floatplane

Field	Value
name	Seafox
image	Fairey Seafox.jpg
caption
type	ship-borne reconnaissance seaplane
national_origin	United Kingdom
manufacturer	Fairey Aviation
designer
first_flight	27 May 1936
introduction	23 April 1937
retired	1943
status
primary_user	Royal Navy (Fleet Air Arm)
more_users
produced
number_built	66
developed_from
variants

The Fairey Seafox was a 1930s British reconnaissance floatplane designed and built by Fairey for the Fleet Air Arm. It was designed to be catapulted from the deck of a light cruiser and served in the Second World War. 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 Specification S.11/32 for a two-seat spotter-reconnaissance floatplane. The first of two prototypes appeared in 1936, first flying on 27 May 1936, and the first of the 64 production aircraft were delivered in 1937. The flights were organised as 700 Naval Air Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm.

The fuselage was of all-metal monocoque construction, the wings being covered with metal on the leading edge, otherwise fabric. It was powered by a 16-cylinder 395 hp (295 kW) air-cooled Napier Rapier 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 , by spotting 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

Specification

|prime units?=imp General characteristics

|max takeoff weight lb= |max takeoff weight note= Powerplant

Performance

Alighting speed: 58 mph |never exceed speed mph= |never exceed speed note= |minimum control speed mph= |minimum control speed note= |wing loading lb/sqft= |disk loading lb/sqft= |fuel consumption lb/mi= |power/mass= |thrust/weight=

Armament

References

Notes

Bibliography

"For Light Reconnaissance" (PDF). Flight, 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. .

References

Taylor 1974, p.285.
Taylor 1974, p.287.
Sturtivant and Ballance 1994, p. 362.
Taylor 1974, p.288.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1930s-british-military-reconnaissance-aircraft floatplanes fairey-aircraft single-engined-tractor-aircraft biplanes aircraft-first-flown-in-1936

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Fairey Seafox — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report