what is it?
The Fairey Seafox was a 1930s British reconnaissance floatplane designed and built by Fairey for the Fleet Air Arm. It was designed to be catapulted from the deck of a light cruiser and served in the Second World War. Sixty-six were built, with two finished without floats and used as landplanes.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · biplane · twin-float gear · 12.2 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 90 years ago, in 1936.
- Top speed is 1.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 12.2 m: about 3 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
- 1936-05-27
- introduced
- 1937
- retired
- 1943
- status
- retired
- number built
- 66
- role
- ship-borne reconnaissance seaplane
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- makers
- Fairey Aviation Company
- engines
- 1× Napier Rapier VI
- crew
- 2
- length
- 10.2 m
- wingspan
- 12.2 m
- height
- 3.7 m
- max take-off weight
- 2,459 kg
- top speed
- 200 km/h
- cruise speed
- 171 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 2,957 m
- wings
- biplane
- landing gear
- twin-float gear
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q206631, Wikipedia: Fairey Seafox (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.