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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The Blackburn Firebrand was a
single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed
during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a
pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and the allocation of its Napier
Sabre piston engine by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for the Hawker
Typhoon caused it to be redesigned as a strike fighter to take advantage of its
load-carrying capability. Development was slow and the first production
aircraft was not delivered until after the end of the war. Only a few hundred
were built before it was withdrawn from front-line service in 1953.
In general, the
Fleet Air Arm had required fighters that were capable of navigating long ranges
over sea and speed differential over attackers was not critical. However, while
defence of British naval bases was a RAF commitment, provision had not been
made for this and so the Admiralty accepted that it would have to take on the
duty. For this it needed an interceptor fighter. Experience in the Norwegian
Campaign of early 1940 had also shown a high-performance, carrier-based,
single-seat fighter would be an advantage. Blackburn tendered their B-37 design
using the Napier Sabre 24-cylinder H-type engine, and this was accepted by June
1940 with a proposal to order "off the drawing board" (meaning
without prototypes). Air Ministry Specification N.11/40stating a minimum top
speed of 350 knots (650 km/h; 400 mph)was raised to cover this
design and an order placed in January 1941 for three prototypes.
The B-37, given
the service name "Firebrand" on 11 July 1941, was a low-winged,
all-metal monoplane. Aft of the cockpit the fuselage was an oval-shaped
stressed-skin semi-monocoque, but forward it had a circular-section,
tubular-steel frame that housed the 169-imperial-gallon (770 l;
203 US gal) main fuel tank and the 71-imperial-gallon (320 l;
85 US gal) auxiliary fuel tank behind the engine. The radiators for
the neatly cowled Sabre engine were housed in wing-root extensions. The large
wing consisted of a two-spar centre section with manually folded outer panels
(with 5 degrees of dihedral) to allow more compact storage in the hangar decks
of aircraft carriers. To increase lift and reduce landing speed the wing was
fitted with large, hydraulically powered Fowler flaps that extended to the
edges of the Frise ailerons. The fixed armament of four 20 mm
(0.79 in) Hispano autocannon was fitted in the outer wing panels with 200
rounds per gun. The vertical stabilizer and rudder were positioned forward of
the horizontal stabilizer to ensure spin recovery and that the rudder would
retain its effectiveness. The mainwheels of the conventional landing gear were
mounted at the ends of the centre wing section and retracted inwards. The
Firebrand was unusual in that there was an airspeed gauge mounted outside of
the cockpit so that during landing the pilot would not have to look down into
the cockpit to take instrument readings, presaging the development of the
modern heads-up display.
The unarmed first
prototype first flew on 27 February 1942 using the Sabre II, the first of two
armed prototypes following on 15 July. The initial flight trials were a
disappointment as the aircraft could only reach 32 mph (51 km/h)
below Blackburn's estimated maximum speed of 390 mph. Replacement of the Sabre
II with a Sabre III (an engine built specifically for the Firebrand) improved
its top speed to 358 mph (576 km/h). The second prototype, DD810,
conducted deck-landing trials, with Commander Dennis Cambell at the controls,
aboard the fleet carrier HMS Illustrious
in February 1943. The Sabre engine was also used in the Hawker Typhoon, a
fighter already in production, and the Ministry of Air Production (MAP) decided
that the Typhoon had priority for the Sabre. The Sabre was also experiencing
production problems and so a new engine was needed, along with the necessary
airframe improvements to accommodate it; rather than abandon the time and
effort invested in the design, the MAP decided to convert the Firebrand into an
interim strike fighter to meet the Fleet Air Arm's requirement for a
single-seat torpedo bomber capable of carrying bombs and rockets as well as
engaging in air-to-air combat. Nine production F. Mk I aircraft were built to
the original specifications and all were retained for trials and development
work.
After it was badly
damaged during an emergency landing, DD810 was converted into a prototype of
the first strike variant, the Firebrand T.F. Mk II (with the company
designation B-45), that flew on 31 March 1943. It was an adaptation of the Mk I
with the wing centre section widened by 1 foot 3.5 inches
(39.4 cm) to make room for the torpedo on the centreline between the
mainwheels. Like the Mk I, the TF Mk II only saw a very limited production run
of 12 aircraft and they were also allocated for development work, including
those assigned to 708 Naval Air Squadron, a shore-based trials unit. Blackburn
proposed several versions of the Sabre-powered aircraft including one for the
RAF as the B-41, a version with a high-lift wing as the B-42, and the B-43
floatplane, none of which were accepted for further development.
A new
specification was issued as S.8/43 to cover the development of the Firebrand
T.F. Mk III (B-45) with the 2,400-horsepower (1,800 kW) Bristol Centaurus
VII radial engine. Two prototypes were converted from incomplete F Mk Is and 27
additional aircraft were delivered, completing the first batch of 50 aircraft.
The first prototype flew on 21 December 1943, but construction of the new
aircraft was very slow with the first flight not being made until November
1944. Most changes were related to the installation of the larger-diameter
Centaurus engine, including air intakes for the carburetor and oil cooler in
the wing-root extensions that formerly housed the engine's radiators. Spring-loaded
trim tabs were also fitted to all control surfaces. Production aircraft after
the first 10 were fitted with the improved Centaurus IX engine. The Mk III was
found to be unsuitable for carrier operations for a variety of reasons. The new
engine produced more torque than the Sabre, and rudder control was insufficient
on takeoff with the full flaps needed for carrier use. Visibility while landing
was very poor, the tailhook attachment to the airframe was too weak, and the
aircraft had a tendency to drop a wing at the stall while landing, so
development continued to rectify these issues.
The T.F. Mk IV
(B-46), as the new development was designated, featured larger tail surfaces
for better low-speed control. The enlarged rudder was horn balanced and the
vertical stabilizer was offset three degrees to port to counteract the
four-bladed Rotol propeller's torque. The wings now featured hydraulically
operated dive brakes on both upper and lower surfaces. The aircraft's wings
were now stressed to carry one 2,000-pound (910 kg) bomb under each wing
or a 45-imperial-gallon (200 l; 54 US gal) drop tank or eight
RP-3 rockets. The frame that held the torpedo was connected to the
undercarriage so that it pivoted nose-downward to increase ground clearance
with the landing gear extended and pivoted upward to reduce drag while in
flight. A 100-imperial-gallon (450 l; 120 US gal) fuel tank
could be fitted on the centreline in lieu of the torpedo. The Mk IV first flew
on 17 May 1945, and was the first version of the Firebrand to enter mass
production, with 170 built, although 50 more aircraft were cancelled.
The later
Firebrand T.F. Mk 5 featured minor aerodynamic improvements and 123 were
converted from Mk IVs. The final version was the Firebrand T.F. Mk 5A with
hydraulically boosted ailerons to increase the aircraft's rate of roll. Two Mk
5s and five Mk IVs were converted to Mk 5A standard.
The Firebrand did
not see action in World War II, as TF 4s were not issued to 813 Naval Air
Squadron until 1 September 1945. The squadron was disbanded 30 September 1946
without ever deploying to sea. It was reformed with TF 5s on 1 May 1947 and
flew them from the carrier HMS Implacable,
later HMS Indomitable,
until it was reequipped with turboprop Westland Wyvern attack aircraft in
February 1953. 827 Naval Air Squadron received their TF 5 and 5As on 13
December 1950 and flew them primarily off the carrier HMS Eagle until it disbanded on 19
November 1952. A variety of second-line squadrons were issued Firebrands of
various marks for training or trials at one time or another.
In test pilot and
naval aviator Captain Eric Brown's opinion the aircraft was "short of
performance, sadly lacking in manoeuvrability, especially in rate of
roll". Furthermore, the positioning of the cockpit even with the trailing
edge of the wing gave the pilot a very poor view over the nose and inhibited
his ability to view his target and to land his aircraft aboard a carrier,
enough so that Brown called it "a disaster as a deck-landing
aircraft".