N52 - Fairey Albacore

Fairey Albacore

By W Harrison

There was never anything wrong with the Albacore for a short time it acted as an important stopgap providing the Fleet Air Arm with an effective operational aircraft until the later more modern types appeared. In fact if the Air Ministry had accepted one of Fairey's earlier design they may well had had a monoplane capable of replacing the Swordfish. Even after 2 years the Fleet Air Arm were still fighting with bi planes that had free-firing guns and external bomb racks