Fairey Fulmar, part five

During 1942 the Fairey Fulmar was being gradually replaced by single-seat aircraft adapted for naval use, like the Hawker Sea-Hurricane, the Supermarine Seafire or the American Grumman Martlet. The Fulmar figured prominently in the Mediterranean during the years 1941 and 1942 as the Fleet Air Arm's (FAA) main fighter protecting most of the convoys sailed to Malta during those years. Sixteen Fulmar were on board HMS Victorious (R38) during Operation Pedestal, which turned to be their last major operation. The Fulmar continued to operate as a night escort-fighter for convoys and in the intruder role. It was also used to trainer crews for the Fairey Firefly which was introduced in 1943. After their withdrawal from the fighter role, the Fulmar were used to perform long-range reconnaissance missions. According to its pilots, the flight characteristics were pleasant as its widely spaced undercarriage provided good deck handling and the type enjoyed excellent fuel capacity and range. Many FAA's aces scored some of their victories while flying the Fulmar, with the first pilot to achieve five kills (the minimum enough required to be considered as an ace) being Sub.Lt. Jackie Sewell.
At its peak, twenty squadrons were equipped with the Fulmar. It flew from eight aircraft carriers and five escort carriers. No.237 Squadron RAF operated them for some months in 1942 from China Bay, in Ceylon, where they saw action during the Japanese raid that took place on 9th April 1942, with half of the squadron's personnel being from the Royal Navy. In total, the Fulmar was recorded having destroyed a total of 112 enemy aircraft for the cost of 40 Fulmar lost, making the type the leading one in terms of aircraft shot down to be operated by the FAA during the World War 2. In February 1945, the Fulmar was officially withdrawn from front line service, with the last operational aircraft, an Mk.II night fighter from 813 Naval Air Squadron being written off after sustaining heavy damage in a landing accident at the safety barrier on board of HMS Campania (D48).
Around 100 Fulmar were converted to the Mk.II Night Fighter variant, but the type was just moderately successful and some of the earlier variants of the aircraft also operated from Catapult Aircraft Merchant (CAM) ships.
A single machine, registered as N1854, was upgraded to Mk.II standards and re-registered as G-AIBE, to be used by Fairey Aviation Company for some time after the war. During June 1959 it was painted back to service markings to be seen at Farnborough at the SBAC show which took place on 8th September 1962. The last flight of this machine was conducted three months later, on 18th December 1962. Ten years later, in 1972, the aircraft was presented to the Fleet Air Arm's Museum, where it has been preserved and it's nowadays in static display.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar
2. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Fulmar-Mk-I-t951
3. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Fulmar-Mk-II-t40358
4. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Fulmar-NF-Mk-II-t180813
5. Osprey Publishing - Aircraft of the Aces 75 - Royal Navy Aces of World War 2
6. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 41 - Fairey Fulmar
7. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Fairey Fulmar, part four

In July 1940, the first squadron to be equipped with the Fulmar was the 806 Naval Air Squadron (NAS). They started operations from the carrier HMS Illustrious (R87) shortly later. The Royal Navy made specifications for a two-seat aircraft so the pilot had assistance from another crew member to report back to the fleet the observations they made via wireless telegraphy and keep flying over the ocean. Therefore the Fulmar was too large and many time difficult to move when fighting against single-seat land-based fighters, just as it happened in the Mediterranean Theatre as its performance was blatantly  inferior to that of land-based fighters. Anyway, the long range of the Fulmar proved useful at times. During the chase of the German Battleship Bismarck, many Fulmar were used as carrier-borne spotters, playing a critical role tracking the movements of the Battleship and performing an attack on the vessel.
The Fulmar also took part in the British North African Campaign. During September 1940 the Fulmar saw action for the first time while flying convoy protection missions to and from Malta. After many engagements, the sturdy Fulmar achieved dozens of victories against their Italian and German enemies. The first recorded kill by a Fulmar took place on 2nd September 1940 when a formation of Fulmar belonging to the 806 NAS, which was on patrol off the coast of the island of Rhodes (which belonged to Italy at the time), shot down a Italian CANT Z.501 Flying Boat. By October that year, the Fulmar pilots claimed to have shot down ten Italian bombers. The Fulmar proved to be specially effective against Italian reconnaissance aircraft like the Caproni Ca.309/310 or the IMAM Ro.37, among others. During the bombing of Taranto, on the night of 11th to 12th November 1940, the Fulmar was deployed to provide high-altitude aerial cover for the attacking Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers. Later, in the Battle of Cape Matapan, which took place between the 27th and the 29th of March 1941, they escorted Fleet Air Arm's attack aircraft in their raids against the Italian Navy.
The Fulmar saw also action in the Eastern Front as the type was very commonly found in the many arctic convoys sent to the Soviet Union. In fact, the Fulmars saw action in the Operation EF, the failed raid on Axis-controlled facilities at Petsamo and Kirkennes which took place in July 1941 as escorting aircraft for both the Albacores and the Swordfish. The Fulmar was also briefly deployed to the Pacific Theatre as a response to the advancing Japanese forces in the Far East. Two squadrons were sent to defend Ceylon. However, when they faced a force composed by the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter and some Aichi D3A dive bombers, the Fulmar quickly proved to be outclassed against the Zero and six Fulmar were lost in the engagement in exchange for four Aichi D3As. In spite of this, as the Fleet Air Arm had not a better alternative yet in the region, further Fulmar were dispatched to the Far East to keep facing the Japanese.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_EF_(1941)
3. Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 75 - Royal Navy Aces of World War 2
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
5. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 41 - Fairey Fulmar

Fairey Fulmar, part three

The first prototype of the Fulmar, which was a flying mock-up, was powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin III engine, which was able of generating up to 1.080 hp of power. When flight-tested, it was shown that performance was relatively poor as the highest speed it could attain was 230 mph (370 km/h). In order to fix such problem, it was fitted with a more powerful Merlin engine; the Merlin VIII, which was a variant made specifically for the Fulmar and with supercharging optimised for low-level flight. Some other aerodynamical improvements were also made to the fuselage.
Those changes managed to increase the speed up to 265 mph (426 km/h) when flown at an altitude of 7.500 ft (2.286 m) high. Given the need for modern fighters to equip Royal Navy's aircraft carriers, the Fulmar performance was considered acceptable.
As a relatively straightforward derivative of the existing prototype, the Fulmar was expected to be ready in big numbers quickly. In mid-1938 a manufacturing order was placed for 127 production aircraft by the Royal Navy. A floatplane variant was also envisioned and promoted but, however such variant was never-built (Note: We couldn't find blueprints or drawings about how this variant would looked like, so we decided not to drawn it) .
On 4th January 1940 the first production aircraft took-off from Fairey's factory at RAF Ringway, near Manchester. Production numbers rise up to 600 machines manufactured. Two-hundred and fifty of the Mk.I variant (first production variant powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin VIII engine and armed with eight 0.303 in Browning Mk.II machine guns in the wings) and 350 of the Mk.II variant (powered by a Merlin XXX engine capable of yielding up to 1.300 hp of power, a new propeller ,the addition of tropical equipment, the usual eight Browning Mk.II machine guns in the wings -being replaced however by four 0.5 in Browning AN/M2 in the last batch- and underwing hardpoints which allowed the aircraft to carry up to 500 lb (226 kg) of bombs). There was also a night fighter variant fitted with an Air Interception Mk.IV radar of which 100 machines were converted from the Mk.II variant.
During January 1941 the manufacturing process of the Mk.II variant started with the first of them being delivered to an operational squadron in March 1941. This model had provision for a 60-gallon (273 litre) centre-line drop-tank which could be replaced by bombs. During October 1941, flight tests performed at RAF Boscombe Down showed that the drop tank extended Fulmar's range to 1.100 milles (1.800 km). Further testing showed that it could safely drop a 500 lb bomb during 60-degree dives at speed of up to 310 knots (574 km/h). Some Fulmars were fitted with catapult-launching gear to be launched from merchant ships, in order to make convoys safer.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar
2. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Fulmar-Mk-I-t951
3. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Fulmar-Mk-II-t40358
4. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Fulmar-NF-Mk-II-t180813
5. Hall Park Books - Warpaint Series 41 - Fairey Fulmar
6. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Fairey Fulmar, part two

The Fairey Fulmar has its roots in the P.4/34 aircraft which was developed as an answer to the specification P.4/34, which requested for a light-bomber with dive-bombing capacities.
The selected one by the Air Ministry was the Hawker Henley and it ended up being a target tug.
The Fulmar was basically a navalized version of the P.4/34. Fairey submitted its modified design to the specification O.8/38, which requested for a two-crew fighter with observation and fleet defence capabilities. Considering that the aircraft wasn't expected to find any fighter opposition, as Germany, Britain's only foreseeable enemy during this time, 1938, had no aircraft carriers. Therefore other factors such as long range and heavy armament were considered more important than a high service ceiling, manoeuvrability or speed. As the type was expected to perform routinely long flights over the ocean, a third crew member (navigator/wireless operator) was considered essential, specially when flying at night or at poor meteorological conditions.
Having a substantial resemblance to the Fairey Battle, the Fulmar prototype was aerodynamically cleaner and had a lightly shorter folding wing. The prototype of the P.4/34 flew for the first time on 13th January 1937 at Fairey's Great Western Aerodrome (nowadays London Heathrow Airport) and, after initial flight tests, some minor modifications were made to the prototype. One year later the name 'Fulmar' was selected for the type, with the name not being announced until the aircraft entered service in 1940.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar
2. Hall Park Books - Warpaint Series 41 - Fairey Fulmar
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Fairey Fulmar, part one

The Fairey Fulmar was a British carrier-borne reconnaissance aircraft/fighter developed and manufactured by Fairey Aviation Company. Named after the Northern Fulmar, a seabird native to the British Isles, the Fulmar served with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA), with Vichy France and it would've served with Denmark.

• Denmark: Together with the previous P.4/34 (of which we made a post), the Royal Danish Navy took interest in the Fulmar (as the later was a developed variant of the first) and plans were made to set up a licensed production chain in Denmark. However, with the course of the World War II and the German occupation of Denmark in April 1940 those plans were cancelled.
• Vichy France: On 27th March 1941 a Fulmar Mk.I belonging to the HMS Furious (47), most probably from 803 Naval Air Squadron was performing a reconnaissance mission over Senegal. The aircraft took off from the carrier, which was off the coast of Freetown, in the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate (under British control) and was flying over Senegal (under Vichy French control) when, for unknown reasons, the plane had to force land at Dakar's airport, in French controlled territory. The aircraft was pushed into service with the Vichy French Air Force, with its former British markings overpainted with French ones and served with the Groupe de Chase (Fighter Squadron) 1/4 which was based in Dakar and Gao, both of them in French West Africa. As the GC 1/4 sided later on with the Free French Air Forces, the captured aircraft, which initially was used for propaganda and evaluation purposes, was most probably either destroyed (most likely) or taken back by the FAA.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar

2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar (translated)

3. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=55460

4. http://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/escadron/groupe_chasse05.htm#GC00401 (translated)

5. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 41 - Fairey Fulmar

6. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters