Fairey Gannet

what is it?

The Fairey Gannet is a carrier-borne aircraft that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed for the Royal Navy, being the first fixed-wing aircraft to combine both the search and strike portions of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations to be operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The Gannet was originally developed to meet a Second World War era requirement for a dual-role ASW and strike to equip the FAA. It was a mid-wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage and a crew of three, with a double turboprop engine driving two counter-rotating propellers.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 turboprop · retractable tricycle gear · 16.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 499 km/htop speed
• size 8,891 kgmax take-off weight
• built 348made 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 77 years ago, in 1949.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 16.6 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.

turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.

spec sheet

first flight

1949-09-19

introduced

1953

retired

1978

status

retired

number built

348

role

anti-submarine warfare aircraft

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Fairey Aviation Company

engines

1× Armstrong Siddeley ASMD.1 Double Mamba / Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba

crew

3

length

13.1 m

wingspan

16.6 m

height

4.2 m

max take-off weight

8,891 kg

top speed

499 km/h

range

—

ceiling

7,620 m

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

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