Fairey Swordfish

Click here or on the picture above to see image enlarged - 147k

'You could pull a Swordfish off the deck and put her in a climbing turn at 55knots.  She would manoeuvre in a vertical plane as easily as she would straight and level, and even when diving from 10,000 feet her indicated air speed never rose much above 200 knots. The controls were not frozen rigid by the force of the slipstream and it was possible to dive within 200 feet of water  . . .
The approach to the carrier deck could be made at a staggeringly low speed,
yet response to the controls remained firm and insistent.  Consider what
such qualities meant on a dark night when the carrier deck was
pitching the height of a house.'
[Wartime Swordfish pilot Terence Horsley in 'Find, Fix and Strike'
 (Eyre& Spottiswoode, London 1943)]
The Swordfish - Introduction and Data

Two more Swordish Images - click on the thumbnail below to enlarge

Photographs by Gordon Bain  - from 'Silvered Wings' (Airlife Publishing)
 

Grumman TBF / TBM Avenger - US shipborne torpedo-bomber

Japanese shipborne torpedo aircraft -  the Kate and Jill

The Story of the Torpedo Bomber -  a book by Peter C. Smith

Douglas SBD Dauntless - US shipborne dive-bomber

Combat Aircraft of the Pacific War


  Wartime photograph of Swordfish Mk Is in flight

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E-mail :

odyssey@dircon.co.uk

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Acknowledgments
The photograph at head of page is reproduced by courtesy of Mr. Gordon Bain from his book
'Silvered Wings - The Aerial Photography of Gordon Bain' (Airlife Publishing, UK)
It shows Swordfish Mk II W5856 over the Needles, Isle of Wight, Southern England in August 1995

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