what is it?
The Fairey Campania was a British ship-borne, patrol and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War and Russian Civil War. It was a single-engine, two-seat biplane with twin main floats and backward-folding wings. The Campania was the first aeroplane ever designed specifically for carrier operations.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 18.8 m wingspan
base stats
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 109 years ago, in 1917.
- Wingspan of 18.8 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
- 1917
- retired
- 1919
- status
- retired
- number built
- 62
- role
- carrier-borne patrol and reconnaissance aircraft
- makers
- Fairey Aviation Company
- engines
- 1× Sunbeam Maori II
- crew
- 2
- length
- 13.1 m
- wingspan
- 18.8 m
- height
- 4.6 m
- max take-off weight
- 2,417 kg
- top speed
- 137 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 1,829 m
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q3064545, Wikipedia: Fairey Campania (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.