Fairey Swordfish, part five

The Fairey Swordfish was a medium sized biplane torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. It employed a metal airframe covered in fabric and featured folding wings to save space inside aircraft carriers and battleships. Once in service, it was nicknamed "The Stringbag" due to the enormous amount of stores and equipment that it could carry. Crews likened the aircraft to a housewife's string shopping bag, which was very usual at the time and could fit contents of any shape and that a Swordfish, like a stringbag, could carry anything.
Its main weapon was the aerial torpedo, but given its low speed and the need for a straight long approach, made it difficult to deliver against well-defended targets. Swordfish' torpedo doctrine recommended an approach at 5000ft (1500m) followed by a dive torpedo release altitude of 18ft (5.5m). The maximum range of British main aerial torpedo at the time, the Mark. XII, was 1500 yards (1400m) at 40 knots (46mph/74km/h) and 3500 yards (3200m) at 27 knots (31mph/50km/h). The torpedo travelled for 200ft (61m) forward from release to water impact, and required further 300 yards (270m) to stabilise at preset depth and arm itself. Ideal release distance was 1000 yards (910m) from target, given that the Swordfish could survive that distance.
The Swordfish was also able of operating as a dive bomber. Just before the war, in 1939, the Swordfish on board HMS Glorious aircraft carrier took part in a series of dive-bombing trials, during which 439 practice bombs were dropped at angles of 60 67 and 70 degrees against the target ship HMS Centurion. Tests against fixed targets showed an average error of 49 yards (45m) from a release height of 1300ft (400m) and a dive angle of 70 degrees. Tests against a manoeuvring target showed and error of 44 yards (40m) on average from a drop height of 1800ft (550m) and a dive angle of 60 degrees.
When more modern torpedo attacks were developed, the Swordfish was successfully relocated to the anti-submarine role, armed with either depth charges or eight "60lb rockets RP-3 rockets and usually it flew from the smaller escort carriers or even the merchant aircraft carriers (MACs), when equipped with the Rocket Assisted Take Off (RATO) system. Given its low stall speed and tough and sturdy design, it was excellent to operate from MAC ships in the harsh mid-Atlantic weather. In fact, its stall speed was so low that, unlike any other carrier-borne torpedo bomber, it did not require the carrier to be steaming into the wind. Sometime, when the wind was right, Swordfish were flown from a carrier at anchor.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish
2. http://www.aviation-history.com/fairey/swordfish.html
3. https://www.navywings.org.uk/aircraft/twin-aircraft/swordfish/
4. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 175 - Fairey Swordfish in Action