Fairey Seafox

Navy Reconnaissance Floatplane Aircraft [ 1937 ]

The Fairey Seafox served the British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm across sixty-six total examples.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 01/21/2019 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]

Advertisements

Since 1917, Fairey Aviation Company delivered many-an-aircraft for British Royal Navy service and this relationship spanned from World War 1 (1914-1918) to World War 2 (1939-1945). In 1932, the Air Ministry delivered Specification S.11/32 calling for a floatplane aircraft to serve aboard Royal Navy light cruisers through the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). Fairey responded with what became the "Seafox" and two prototypes followed with the first arriving in 1936. First flight was recorded on May 27th, 1936.

The aircraft was designed around a seaplane configuration, its undercarriage consisting of twin floats for water landings while launching was accomplished by onboard catapults (recovery would be by way of shipboard crane). The Seafox was not intended as a fleet protector as much as reconnaissance platform, serving gunnery crews aboard the cruisers and increasing their ranged accuracy as a result. When pressed into war, British light cruisers would be charged with hunting down enemy participants and any long range vision from above was of particularly value.

The Seafox employed a biplane arrangement as well as a metal understructure which was reinforced for the rigors of catapult launching. Simple fabric covered the wings and tail surfaces to produce a light design and manufacture-friendly product. A strut network fixed the floats to the underside of the fuselage. The aircraft required a crew of two and seated the pilot in an open-air cockpit aft of the forward-mounted engine while the observer was shielded from the elements under a canopy aft of the pilot. The engine of choice became the Napier "Rapier" VI series 16-cylinderair-cooled piston model of 395 horsepower output and performance figures included a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour, a service ceiling up to 9,700 feet, and a range out to 440 miles. Armament was largely defensive (and optional) - a single 7.7mm Lewis machine gun being fitted for the rear observer. Some Seafoxes were later modified with underwing racks for carrying 4 x 20lb light bombs or marking flares.

The Seafox was introduced for service in April of 1937 and went on to stock the inventories of some eleven Fleet Air Arm squadrons. Beyond the two prototypes completed, total production netted 64 aircraft. None were exported though British Seafoxes served with Australian and New Zealand naval forces for a time. In practice, the type proved itself highly serviceable but were noted for such failings as underpowered engines (which also suffered from cooling issues) and tricky handling - however these limitations could be overlooked in a time of total war.

When Britain declared war on Germany, total Seafox strength numbered thirty-two and the line was immediately pressed into active operations against German naval targets. Seafoxes played a role in the hunt for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic to which this enemy vessel was eventually chased by the British Navy into neutral Montevideo, Uruguay before being scuttled in December of 1939. Beyond that, Seafoxes served the FAA well in subsequent war years - providing much needed over-the-horizon eyes-in-the-skies. Some were present in the evacuation of Crete during 1941 and their type was in force up until about 1943 when more modern products were ultimately adopted by the FAA.©MilitaryFactory.com

Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

Specifications

Service Year

1937

Origin

United Kingdom

Status

RETIRED
Not in Service.

Crew

2

Production

66
UNITS

Fairey Aviation - UK

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

United Kingdom

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ Maritime / Navy
Land-based or shipborne capability for operating over-water in various maritime-related roles while supported by allied naval surface elements.

✓ Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR), Scout
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.

Length

33.5 ft
(10.20 m)

Width/Span

40.0 ft
(12.20 m)

Height

12.1 ft
(3.70 m)

Empty Wgt

3,814 lb
(1,730 kg)

MTOW

5,512 lb
(2,500 kg)

Wgt Diff

+1,698 lb
(+770 kg)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base Fairey Seafox production variant)

Installed: 1 x Napier Rapier Vi piston engine developing 395 horsepower.

Max Speed

124 mph
(200 kph | 108 kts)

Ceiling

9,843 ft
(3,000 m | 2 mi)

Range

441 mi
(710 km | 1,315 nm)

Rate-of-Climb

325 ft/min
(99 m/min)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base Fairey Seafox production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

OPTIONAL:
1 x 7.7mm machine gun

NOTE:
Some aircraft modified with underwing racks for carrying 4 x 20lb conventional drop bombs or marking flares.

Supported Types

Graphical image of an aircraft medium machine gun

Graphical image of an aircraft conventional drop bomb munition

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

Hardpoint Mountings: 0

Seafox - Base Series Name

Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force

Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway

Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift

Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War

Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War

Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight

Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War

Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars

Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War

Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War

Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War

Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency

Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor

Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War

Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War

Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War

Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War

Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War

Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era

Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2

Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War

Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft

Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery

1 / 1

Image from the Public Domain.