My original Spearfish was a little lack lustre and I think the types rather underrepresented on this site so I thought a remake was in order.

The Fairey Spearfish was designed as a torpedo dive-bomber to replace the Barracuda operated by the Fleet Air Arm. She was considerably larger than the Barracuda having a more powerful engine and an internal weapons bay complete with retractable radar. The bulky Spearfish was to be at home on the planned 45,000 ton Malta-Class aircraft carriers however the carriers were cancelled amidst changing requirements during the Second World War.

With the big decks to house the Spearfish never materialising the programme was itself scrapped after 5 aircraft had been built. Of these 4 were flying being mostly used for experimental purposes. The last of the prototypes were finally scrapped in 1952.

The Spearfish was a big ungainly bird. So much so early flights had the test pilot stating “lateral control was so solid that I could barely move the ailerons with one hand at 130 knots.” This resulted in a hydraulic system being installed as an interim measure with equally unfavourable results.

Stall characteristics were another alarming ‘blip’ on the road to development. According to test pilots there was no indication the aircraft was going to enter a stall until you were in it. Coupled with this the approach speed to a carrier was also disturbingly close to stall point.

Controls

1 Flaps
2 Tail Hook
8 Lights

Internal weapons bay - lacking.
Folding wings as per naval practice - no documents/pictures I could find would suggest the prototype had foldable wings. I’m sure if production went ahead this would have featured. Besides, the flap mechanism is easily interrupted and I didn’t want to over complicate the structure in the wings.

Well I’ll stick some pics below and wish you all a happy new year!