The Fairey Campania was a ship-borne patrol floatplane with twin main floats and backward folding wings. It was the first airplane designed specifically for carrier operations.
When, in the middle of 1916, the Campania was fitted with a forward flight-deck, where they could launch aircraft from, the admiralty issued a specification for a purposely built two-seat reconnaissance aircraft that could operate from ships.
Fairey designed a tractor biplane in February 1917 it was made out of wood and was covered in fabric. The two wings could fold backwards for storage, in order to save space. It was armed with a lewis machine gun placed in the observer cockpit and could also carry up to 6 53kg bombs under the wings or fuselage.
As the trials with the prototypes (which after testing they operated from the Royal Naval Air Service air station of Scapa Flow) were successful, many Campanias were shipped on board of HMS Campania, HMS Nairana and HMS Pegasus seaplane carriers all of them. As the HMS Campania was the only one fitted with a flying deck, only the airplanes operating from that ship took-off using the wheels in the floaters, the rest took-off in the traditional floatplane way (after being deployed in the sea using a crane, obviously).
It didn't achieve any distinguishable record, but served well in it's role as spotter. During the north Russian campaign, in the Russian Civil war, some Campanias from HMS Nairana, took part on what maybe was the first combined air land and sea attack on history joining entente land forces and driving Bolshevik forces away which had been fortified on Modyugski Island. Once the port of Arkhangelsk was taken, the Campanias operated from there.
They were declared obsolet in 1919.
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