When Captain Eric Brown complains about an airplanes handling, he has enormous creditably and must be listened to.

When you showed the Mauler and the Firebrand, you left out the epitome of that aircraft type. The inimitable "Able Dog", Douglass Skyraider.

Just looking at it gives you a feeling of too much aircraft and not enough engine.

Hello Ed . Another one out of your Mary Poppins bag ! It's laudable how far off the bulls eye we were . And not for the first time ! And if Eric thought it was bad it must have been unflyable ! Thanks Ed.

Never really realized how huge these Fairey planes were, knowing them only from pictures in books. But also, WWII did end in september, so no mistake there

Wartime pressures bring forth ingenuity and amazing aircraft ,also unfortunately lemons like these. Well done Ed my education on really obscure aircraft continues.

Ed, you are definitely the "Ian Macullum" of forgotten aircraft. Another great video of an aircraft I (and many others) have never heard of. Well done!

Ed Nash- the war did end officially in September with the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay. The end of hostilities was in August, but that's a very different thing. Just ask the Koreans both North and South.

"An 18-valve, sleeve-cylinder engine" - I think you mean an 18-cylinder, sleeve-valve engine :)

YOU'RE BACK!

"If it looks right, it'll fly right"; something cockeyed about this one from Fairey. Thanks as always for an interesting wander down another one of aviation's cul-de-sacs Ed!

Thank you Ed. I knew little of this aircraft. This giant tub of goo - empty - weighed more than THREE times as much as an empty Spitfire VB. What the HECK were the Fairey designers thinking? ☮

Obviously needed a turret to make it even heavier, slower and completely useless.

Damn, I pride myself on knowing almost all or most aircraft of WW2, you keep finding new ones !

I am a proud owner of the old Contrail kit. Love it. Its huge in 1/72 scale. Thank you ebay.

I have always wondered how a company like Fairey has been able to remain in business despite the consistent inadequacy of its production since the Swordfish… same applies to Blackburn which however proved capable to redeem itself eventually with the (surprisingly) brilliant Bucaneer.

Another great video, thank you. I've always found the Fleet Air Arm interesting, the story of the brave guys who were ordered to attack the German War ships involved in the channel dash, the Swordfish aircraft flew to RAF Manston to refuel and then off to attack the German War ships, sadly they were all shot down and I'm sure at least one Victoria Cross was awarded, very brave men. All the best, 👍👍👍👊✌️.

Technically, the Fairey Spearfish had mid-mounted wings. Nonetheless, another fantastic video Ed! Thank you.

Great content. I had no idea the thing even existed. It may have been a bit of a pig but at least is wasn't hideous as well.

There is something about the way the British designed the cowls around their radial engines that I find absolutely awesome looking, no matter the aircraft!!

The end of this video sums up my "Career" in the Marine Corps: Too late to do much and not very good at doing it. LOL! Great video.

Keep posting these videos. I admire the Brits pluck in never giving up with new designs.

The Fairey Barracuda attracted some rather caustic doggerel; here are two of them, set to the tune of "Any Old Iron." The Barracuda 2 Blues Any old iron Any old iron Any, any old iron, Down at Lee* You get them free Built by Fairey, for a crew of three Not much use, No damn juice An air frame you can’t rely on There’s nothing new in this Bara 2 She’s all old iron. * Main Fleet Air Arm Base The Barracuda 2 Any old iron! Any old iron! Any any any old iron! Talk about a treat Torpedoing a fleet Any old cruiser or battleship you meet Weighs six tons, no front guns ---- all to rely on You know what you can do With your Barracuda 2 Old iron, old iron! Any old iron! Any old iron! Any any any old iron! The engine is a ----- Rolls Royce A Merlin V-12, and it ain't our choice! Open up the throttle And the whole ----ing lot'll Wail like an air-raid siren You know what you can do With your Barracuda 2 Old iron, old iron!

Thanks Ed, yet another side development I never knew about. Those WW2 German experimental planes get all the attention usually!!

Shame; the Fairey shop's products, no matter how odd they might have looked, usually had a certain Fairey charm, but this bird was simply homely.

KZfaq didn't even send me. I got the feeling that I hadn't heard from Ed in a while, checked on the channel, and what do you know. He uploaded an hour ago.

Of the British WW2 types, I like the Fairy Fulmar.

I like the dryer vent on the wing

A landing circuit so large it made a 4 engined heavy bomber look nimble

Nice work, Ed👍.

The damage done to naval aviation in the RN between 1919 and 1939 by the RAF (and several times since post war) should not be discounted-it was enormous. The USAAF tried to pull the same stunt post 45 with the USN and almost got away with it,so it wasn't just Britain that got shafted.

5:19 Thats the most aggressively American design I've ever seen. Obviously needs more firepower. 12 rockets and 3 torpedoes just wont cut it! :P

Another great video! Very interesting and informative.

The problem for the Royal Navy was that aircraft and aircraft design was put in the hands of the Royal Air Force. Which meant that their requirements were not properly catered for. Though they did get control back they were having to play catch-up during WW2. The German Kriegsmarine in WW2 had the same problem in that the aircraft they wanted for their carrier but Herman Goring refused to let them have any. I once read an autobiography of a Royal Air Force pilot who served between the wars. It was suddenly decided that RAF pilots should learn to fly from carriers. It was not a decision welcomed by the RAF pilots, as you can imagine.

Thanks for rescuing this from obscurity. It can now go back there.

Makes me think of the aircraft that was cobbled together for the movie, flight of the phoenix.

i'm afraid to even try looking up how that undercarriage worked.

One could imagine a swordfish still finding some utility in 2021 ....

Never would have known about this plane if I hadn't seen it here. Thanks.

Thank you 🙏 AGAIN #1 aircraft that I have never heard of ☑️ #2 short sweet and to the point ☑️ #3 well researched historical context ☑️ 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

As the Maltas would have been big enough to fly Mosquitos from them for attack, and the Sea Fury was available, both able to carry as much, or more, 100knots faster and with vastly better firepower... Even the Beaufighter significantly outpaced, gunned, carried and ranged it, and could have been adapted to fly from that carrier class.

Ah yet another aircraft I was unaware even existed 😂 thanks for the video keep up the good work! Have you ever considered covering any interesting WW1 unknown aircraft even just a quick Wikipedia search has brought alot of interesting designs to my attention that might deserve some further explanation

"A definite improvement over the Baracuda" In the sane way a lump of charcoal is a definite improvement over a dog turd in a michelin star meal.

Technically the F4U-4 was the first full fledged high performance naval strike fighter with a 4000lb payload.

man, our great nation of engineers have turned out some complete shite aircraft

0:09 British F4's looked awesome :D I loved the Falklands era Harriers with the white winged fist on the tail too! :D

It looks like it could have carried ten passengers as a postwar airliner. A single engined Ambassador.

Having studied aviation development for 50 years, and being quite familiar with a multitude of types most people have never heard of, it amazes me that you can always seem to come up with something that is completely new to me. You are an archival prodigy, sir.

Wow! I've seen ONE photo of this type before. Now we have a video.

I think you mixed up wing mounting between the Barracuda and the Spearfish. The Barracuda is shoulder mounted and the Spearfish is mid-wing.

I have never before seen a person with shoulders so near their waste, as with the Baracuter.

Some nice pics and footage of what looks like the old Fairey flight hangars at White Waltham there, demolished in the late 80s, I think.

The Bristol Centaurus was an eighteen cylinder, sleeve valve engine, not an 'eighteen valve, sleeve cylinder' engine (@04:02)! Minor error aside, an excellent video as usual. Keep up the good work.

I love massive single engine a/c. This is like a prop version F105 😍

whoa just noticed you are up to 30K Ed congrats

Nice video :D At 4.02 you seem to have made a little mixup. You say an 18 valve sleeve cylinder radial engine. Would guess the words valve and cylinder are switched around? Btw i really enjoyed the video about an aircaft, that i didnt knwo anything about before :)

That old saying “if something looks right it probably is” comes to mind because that ‘thing’ looks like it was slapped together with odd bits from a scrap yard

Cold war naval aviation is so interesting.

Fairy broke their tradition of building aircraft that looked like the plans had been drawn by 4 different draftsmen taking a segment each and each one having financial interests in a scrapyard, while holding meetings every 3 months via telegram. Still didn’t work!

Good effort

They should've called it the Fairey Seasnail. 😂

This great clunker might have had a use as an ASW platform (like the Grumman Guardian), and it wasn't really a bad looking aircraft. It was no improvement on the Avenger when the Avenger itself was being replaced by aircraft like the Skyraider and Mauler. Five years or more earlier... The Royal navy tended to hang the name "fighter" on some very unlikely post-war concoctions. Kind of like trying to create a grand prix school bus!

It be great if you can do a video on the Saunders-Roe SR.A/1

In a strange way, this aeroplane would have looked great as part of flyby with Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters.

It's BARA-KOO-DAH!!! Aside from that, quite an informative video!!!

The end of the war must have hurt the feelings of many arms manufacturers.

Remember, until ~1940, the Royal Navy had no say in their aircraft designs. It was all done through the RAF, who took deliberate and perverse pleasure in screwing the Navy. Their designs were crap until the late 1940's because they simply had so little internal experience in the process of issuing specs and managing a development programme.

the whole reason the Royal Navy flew Wildcats, Hellcats and Corsairs was that they couldn't produce naval aircraft of such quality, performance and utility. It's true the Spitfire, Tempest, Mosquito and Lancaster were excellent aircraft, but the UK clearly lagged behind the US in naval aircraft designs.

The description of the engine as having 18 valves sounds odd - it does have 18 sleeves for 18 cylinders, but 4 ports per sleeve... Is this how they are measured/counted?

Hmm Malta class, deck edge lifts too...

Interesting, thanks.

Never heard of it, and now I know why!

"If it looks right, it is right." However, there is a corollary...

Why did they even bother when the Sea Fury was being developed at the same time? Supermarine got it almost right once, but the only British plane company with a track record of providing the right planes at the right time was/is Hawker. Sopwith Camel, Hurricane, Tempest, Sea Fury, Harrier, Typhoon. Always the right gear at exactly the right time. They never outclassed anybody, but they could always put something up there that's capable of fighting back. Am guessing that the bosses of Fairey, Blackburn & Boulton Paul went to the same "schools" as the guys in the Ministry, because they kept getting funds to develop "catch all" planes that couldn't catch a beach ball! The Germans would have had those guys making ball bearings or tooling equipment...

If I didn't know better, I would say the directors and designers of Fairy and Blackburn worked for the Germans.

Right! Does the Barracuda not sum up all of the UK as of today?

and quite good looking !

It seem to me that the only requirement of the Fleet Air Arm is that their embarked airplanes had to be ugly as s***t! The exception to the rule being the Seafire, of course.

I like the look of the Spearfish it's actually a massive airplane judging by the scale of the pilot in the cockpit if this was in the works where does the Firebrand fit in here or was that postwar?🤔

Though the fighters shown carrying torpedos and rockets look impressive, I don't think they'd stand a chance against enemy fighter unless they jettisoned their loads. I think they were to be escorted by the same fighters but without torpedos at least. However, this would make carrier operations much more efficient because they would only have to take into account a single type of aircraft when storing them or setting them up on the flight deck.

Around the 4:00 minute mark you describe the Bristol Centaurus as being an 18 valve 3 cylinder engine. I believe you meant 18 cylinder engine.

Sort of like the airplane I’d quick sketch, thinking I was doing an Avenger.

Sounds like a candidate for the Elbonian Air Force.

At least it looks better than the Barracuda, an aircraft that always seemed to be assembled from discarded bits of Airfix kits.

After WW-II the emphasis switched from carrier-based attack aircraft to carrier-based anti-submarine aircraft. With its' ASV radar the Spearfish might have been able to fill that niche except for its' great size. The later Fairey Gannet was much better.

they did that because the carriers were designed for northern water and the med where they would operate within range of land based aircraft . the famous quote from the pacific , when a us carrier gets hit its six months in dry door , on a british carrier its sweepers man your brooms , thats why the groups wwere small because of the armoured flight deck

Well.....at least it was a monoplane.

18 valve sleeve cylinder? I stopped right there.

Surely not scrapped those precious Bristol sleeve valve engines ?

It looks much nicer than the Avenger, I wonder where they messed up the design.

“If it looks like a dog . Then it is a dog.” That doctrine is very rarely wrong 😑

Even though it was heavy and cumbersome, just one of its Torpedoes could have sank a Battleship.

Kinda too bad it didn't work out. Nice looking airplane, anyway.

This one looks like it made of sluggish.

wow its big is all i can say

What is the name of the twin engine Fairey aircraft that was not chosen?

Was there ever a really good British carrier aircraft before jets came along I'm wondering, seems the British underperformed a bit on that front...?

Interesting

Formal Japanese surrender was on 2 September 1945, so technically you were correct.

Didn't the war 'technically' end in Sept. 1945 though with the surrender signing on the Missouri?