Fairey Albacore
- Thread starter Frog
- Start date
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Sooooo much better looking than the Swordfish.
Good shot!
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Did the crews prefer the Albacore over the Swordfish? It must be an improvement in working conditions.
Yes and yes!
Apparently crews liked the enclosed cockpit with heating lines, but it had less responsive controls and wasn't as manoeuvrable as the Swordfish and it was substantially larger, making it, in the eyes of its crew at any rate a larger target. It was more refined in that it had novelties such as a windscreen wiper, variable pitch prop, hydraulically operated flaps that could be used as dive brakes, actuatable leading edge slats and so forth, not to mention an all-metal stressed skin fuselage. The decision to make it a biplane was a curious one as it was a modern aircraft in almost every respect. Had it been a monoplane with retractable gear it would have been more sophisticated than the TBD and B5N, but the conservatives won and it was merely anachronistic, despite its virtues.
10 percent size increase is quite a bit for an aeroplane on a carrier deck, that is still a considerable enlargement over its equivalent it has to share deck space with. The other thing about the Albacore was that its stance made it appear larger than a Swordfish - if you can, find images of the two of them together, the nose high attitude of the Applecore gave it an impression of size because of its stalky undercarriage.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Heaters you say? I want one!
From what I've read the crew were equipped with heating lines, plug-in circuits in their clothing (I'm assuming) that kept the crew warm, rather than heaters, but it would have made a big difference on long cold patrols.
Here's a quote from Mr Eric Brown, whom is a delight at describing these things.
"My first impression of the Albacore was one of size. It seemed so much larger than its predecessor and those thick wings and that massive undercarriage, let alone the wealth of struts and bracing wires, were eloquent of the sort of performance that one might expect. Of course, it's beautifully cowled Taurus offered a lot more power than the Pegasus of the old Stringbag but I wondered how much of this was absorbed in compensating for the built-in drag."
"A single-bay all-metal biplane, the Albacore was essentially simple in concept. Its equi-span fabric covered wings carried ailerons on both top and bottom planes and hydraulically operated flaps on the inboard portion of each lower mainplane. Automatic slats had originally been incorporated in the leading edges of the outboard portions of the upper mainplanes, but their unsatisfactory characteristics had led to their deletion. The light alloy monocoque fuselage incorporated steel-tube engine mounting, centre section and tail bay, the centre section being bolted to the monocoque decking between the cockpits. The fixed tail surfaces were of stressed skin construction with all movable control surfaces were fabric covered."
"After clambering into the Albacore's cockpit, which was a long way off the ground, I found no major departure from the essentially simple theme that characterised the entire aircraft, the layout being very neat and clinical."
Brown goes on and describes it as a well-behaved and likeable aircraft forgiving of mistakes, but admits that as he was trained as a fighter pilot his attitude towards its pedestrian performance and sedate manoeuvrability is biased, although he states that its pilots liked its handling, but decried its lack of manoeuvrability.
Nice shots!
