Fairey Gannet, part four

 

The prototype of the Fairey Gannet flew for the first time on 19th September 1949 and made the first carrier landing by a turboprop aircraft on HMS Illustrious (87) later, on 19th June 1950, at the hands of Lt. Cdr. G. Callingham. After having changed the operational requirements with the addition of a radar and a third crew member to operate it, the type began to be produced in 1953, with initial deliveries being called Gannet AS.1 and delivered to RNAS Ford (West Sussex) in April 1954. Shortly after a trainer variant, called T.2 was developed and flew for the first time in August 1954. The Fleet Air Arm's first operational Gannet squadron, 826 Naval Air Squadron, was embarked on board HMS Eagle (R05). 

The initial production order called for 100 Gannet AS.1. Eventually, a total of 348 Gannets were manufactured, of which 44 were re-designated as AEW.3, of the airborne early warning type. Production ranged from 1953 until the late 1950s and was shared between Fairey's factories at Hayes in Middlesex, Heaton Chapel in Stockport and Manchester Ringway airport. 

By mid-1960s the AS.1 and AS.4 (an improved version) had been replaced by the Westland Whirlwind HAS.7 helicopter. However, some Gannets were kept in active service as Electronic Counter-Measures aircraft as the ECM.6 and some other AS.4 were converted to Carrier On Board Delivery role, the aerial supply of mail and light cargo to the fleet.

Sources:

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

2. https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/gannet/history.php

3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 23 - Fairey Gannet

4. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Gannet-t94590 (translated)

Fairey Gannet, part three

 

In the Fairey Gannet, the pilot was seated forward, having this way a good view over the nose for carrier operations, and sat over the Double Mamba engine, behind the gearbox and propellers. The aerial observer sat under a separate canopy, directly behind the pilot. After prototype tests, a third crew member, with the role of second observer, was included, in his own separate cockpit, placed over the wing trailing edge. This change altered the airflow over the horizontal stabilizer, which required small finlets on either side to be included. The Gannet was also fitted with a large internal weapons bay, capable of holding up to 2.000 lbs. (907 kg) of either bombs, torpedoes, depth charges and/or rockets, and a retractable radome under the rear fuselage, where the Ekco ASV Mk.19 radar's antennae was placed.

The wings folded in two places with a distinctive "Z"-shape on each side. The first fold was upwards, at about a third of the wing span where the inboard anhedral (down-sweep) changed to the outboard dihedral (up-sweep) of the wing (often described as an inverted gull wing). The second wing fold was downward, about two-thirds of the wing span. The length of the nosewheel shock absorber caused the Gannet to have a peculiar nose-high altitude, characteristic which was common in every carrier aircraft.

When serving with the Fleet's Air Arm (FAA) most of them were painted in the standard camouflage scheme of a Sky (duck-egg blue) underside and fuselage sides, with upper surfaces in Extra Dark Sea Grey. Fuselage demarcation line ran from the nose behind the propeller spinner in a straight line, to then curve and join the fin line. Code numbers were generally painted on the side of the fuselage, ahead of the wing and round and serial markings were behind the wing. The T.2 and T.5 dual-control trainer variants were left in silver overall with a yellow or orange "trainer" band on the rear fuselage and wings.

Sources:

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

2. https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/gannet/history.php

3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 23 - Fairey Gannet

Fairey Gannet, part two

 

The Fairey Gannet was a carrier-borne anti-submarine/strike aircraft that was designed and developed by Fairey Aviation after World War 2.

The Gannet was build as a response to the GR.17/45 Admiralty requirement made in 1945, for which both Fairey (Fairey Type Q, AKA Fairey 17) and Blackburn (Blackburn B-54/B-88) presented their prototypes. 

Initially, the Rolls-Royce Tweed engine was considered, however, Fairey discarded it in favour of the Armstrong-Siddeley Mamba turboprop, the Double Mamba. These engines were mounted side-by-side and coupled through a common gearbox to coaxial contra-rotating propellers with each engine driving its own propeller. Power was transmitted by a torsion shaft engaged through a series of sun, planet, epicyclic and spur gears to give a suitable reduction ratio and correct propeller-shaft rotation. 

The ASMD.1 engine, capable of achieving up to 2.950 hp of power, was equipped in the Gannet AS.1 (first anti-submarine version) and the AS.4 (an improved anti-submarine variant) was powered with a ASMD.3 engine with 3.875 hp of power. The Double Mamba engine could be run with one engine off and its propeller feathered to conserve fuel and extend endurance when cruising. In a traditional twin-engined aircraft, this would create thrust asymmetry, however, this was avoided thanks to the centerline-mounted propellers. Mamba exhausts were placed on each side of the fuselage, at the root of the wing trailing edge. The gas turbine engine could run on kerosene, "wide-cut" turbine fuel or diesel fuel, allowing the Admiralty to discard the dangerous high-octane petroleum spirit required to operate piston-engined aircraft from aircraft carriers. 

Sources:

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

2. https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/gannet/history.php

3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 23 - Fairey Gannet

Fairey Gannet, part one, foreign users

 

The Fairey Gannet was a British carrier-borne aircraft of the post Second World War. It was a mid-wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage, a crew of three and a double turboprop engine driving two contra-rotating propellers. 

It was used by many non-British users:

• Australia: The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) decided to purchase the Fairey Gannet in the early 1950s for use on board on the soon to be commissioned HMAS Melbourne (R21) aircraft carrier. Six RAN aircrew went to the United Kingdom in early 1955 to be trained on operating the Gannet at the Royal Navy Air Station (RNAS) Eglinton, in Northern Ireland. 
  Later, two RAN Gannet squadrons, were formed at RNAS Culdrose, in Cornwall, and later, on 23rd August 1955, they were officially formed as 816 and 817 Squadrons. On 8th March 1956 HMAS Melbourne arrived at Glasgow, Scotland and the two Gannet squadrons (24 machines in total) were loaded on board, together with two squadrons of de Havilland Sea Venom fighters and two Bristol Sycamore helicopters for use in the RAN. Then, HMAS Melbourne sailed to Australia and in early May 1956 she arrived in Jervis Bay where the aircraft were unloaded and transported by road to the Naval Air Station at Nowra, in New South Wales. 
  Ten additional Gannets were also acquired to replace losses due to accidents. On 18th August 1958 , one squadron, 817 was decommissioned, leaving 816 squadron the only one to operate the Gannet in Australia. Three Gannet T.2 (dual control trainers) were also purchased in 1957 and one AS.1 was later converted into a T.5 training aircraft, which was operated by 724 and 725 squadrons.
  The Gannets conducted regular exercises on board HMAS Melbourne, in Australian and South-East Asian waters, as well as being part of the Far East strategic reserve, where they were employed for surveillance and reconnaissance duties during the Malayan Emergency and the Indonesian Confrontation. HMAS Melbourne was also part of the escort the fast troop transport ship HMAS Sydney (R17) on her first deployment to South Vietnam in 1965-1966. Fifteen of the thirty-seven purchased Gannets, were lost in accidents and a total of six crew members were killed. After having served for more than ten years, in July 1967 the Gannet was withdrawn from front line service as, by then, they were redundant and were being replaced by either the Westland Wessex helicopter with its dipping sonar and/or Grumman S-2E/G Tracker with its high-tech electronics and anti-submarine equipment.
  Nowadays, some few Gannets are shown as museum aircraft, but most of them were scrapped or re-purposed at Nowra for fire-fighting training.
• West Germany: The Federal Republic of Germany operated the Gannet too. In 1956 the German Federal Armed Forces were created as a member of the NATO alliance. West Germany's naval interests lay mainly in the Baltic Sea and, as Soviet and Warsaw Pact submarines would have to traverse the shallow Baltic approaches to reach the open North Sea, NATO planners assigned West Germany with an important anti-submarine role within the alliance. Britain supplied most of the main equipment of the embryonic Marineflieger (German Naval Air Arm) with 15 Gannet AS.4 and one T.5 ordered in 1956. 
  As time was essential, the aircraft were withdrawn from previous existing Admiralty contracts and pilot conversion training was undertook at White Waltham airfield, in Berkshire during early 1958 and operational crew training was carried out at RNAS Eglinton, where, in order to accelerate crew training a single T.5 was delivered on 6th March 1958 and the Bundesmarine's Gannet Squadron MFG 1/1 was formed two months later. 
  After having been commissioned, the squadron flew to its new home base of Schleswig in late July 1958 where it operated as part Marinefliegergeschwader 1 (MFG 1) on anti-submarine and anti-shipping duties as tasked by NATO's Commander Baltic Approaches (COMBALTAP). The Gannets serving with the MFG 1 they generally used their construction numbers as a permanent identity and were identified within their unit by a two-letter and three figure fuselage code ranging from 'UA+101' (where the letter U indicated the airplane's anti-submarine role and the letter A indicating MFG 1) to UA+115. The T.5 received the unusual figure code of UA+99.
  The squadron was later rebased to Nordholz, in Lower Saxony and transferred to MFG 3 control. Under this new command, the Gannets retained their 'UA' codes instead of the unit's 'UC'. One aircraft, UA+115 was lost to an accident but the remaining Gannets continued to serve with the Marineflieger until their task was taken over by helicopters and the Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic patrol aircraft. The first Br.1150 Atlantic arrived in Nordholz in December 1965 and the Gannets were eventually assigned for storage from June the following year. Switzerland showed some interest to use them as target tows, but as original contract prohibited sale of the aircraft to third parties, nothing came of this. Most of German Gannets were scrapped, but some of them were kept as museum exhibits.
• Indonesia: Indonesia ordered 18 Gannet AS.4 and some T.2 together with ground instruction frames directly from Fairey in January 1959. This came because of Dutch pressures to France to not sell the Breguet Br.1050 Alize as the Dutch foresaw problems with their former colony. However, the UK approved the sale to the Indonesian Air Force.
  Fairey bought back 20 surplus Gannet AS.1 and two T.2s airframe from the Admiralty to fulfill the contract. Those AS.1 were updated to AS.4 standards and some other AS.4 were bought. 
  After undergoing official training at White Waltham, and suffering several delays because of political and military reasons (Indonesia had invaded Western Papua-New Guinea with subsequent clashes with Dutch forces in the region), it wasn't until 18th January 1962 that Indonesian Gannets were shipped to the Asian country. 
  Under Indonesian service the Gannets were used for coastal reconnaissance missions, supporting Indonesian forces moving east through the archipelago. When Malaysia achieved independence in September 1963, Indonesia advanced into North Borneo too and this caused an armed response from Britaim which lasted until 1966. During this period, the West called off every arms trade with Indonesia, and as spare supplies ran off, Indonesian Gannets began to steadily fall. The Indonesian government then turned to the USSR for military help and by 1971 very few Gannets were still in service. The last one was withdraw shortly afterwards and nowadays one is conserved in Indonesian Armed Forces' Museum in Jakarta.

Sources:

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

2. https://www.navy.gov.au/aircraft/fairey-gannet-as14

3. https://www.bredow-web.de/Luftwaffenmuseum/Transport/FAIREY-GANNET/fairey-gannet.html (translated)

4. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 23 - Fairey Gannet