Fairey Battle

what is it?

The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · low wing · retractable tailwheel (taildragger) · 16.5 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 414 km/htop speed
• size 4,895 kgmax take-off weight
• built 2,185made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 89 years ago, in 1937.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 16.5 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1937-03-10

introduced

1937

retired

1949

status

retired

number built

2,185

role

light bomber

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Fairey Aviation Company

engines

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin II / Rolls-Royce Merlin

crew

3

length

12.9 m

wingspan

16.5 m

height

4.7 m

max take-off weight

4,895 kg

top speed

414 km/h

range

—

ceiling

7,620 m

wings

low wing

landing gear

retractable conventional landing gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.