Royal Air Force Belgian Air Force Royal Australian Air Force Royal Canadian Air Force
Produced
1937–1940
Number built
2,201
The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. As the Battle, with its three-man crew and bomb load, was much heavier than the fighters, it was therefore much slower. Though a great improvement over the aircraft that preceded it, its relatively slow speed, limited range and inadequate defensive armament of only two .303 (7.7 mm) machine guns left it highly vulnerable to enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire.[1]
The Fairey Battle was used on operations early in the Second World War. During the "Phoney War" the type achieved the distinction of scoring the first aerial victory of an RAF aircraft in the conflict. In May 1940, the Battles of the Advanced Air Striking Force suffered many losses, frequently in excess of 50 per cent of aircraft sorties per mission. By the end of 1940 the type had been withdrawn from front-line service and relegated to training units overseas. As an aircraft that had been considered to hold great promise in the pre-war era, the Battle proved to be one of the most disappointing aircraft in RAF service.[1]
The FaireyBattle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the...
of the earlier Fairey P.4/34, a land-based light bomber developed during 1936 as a replacement for the FaireyBattle light bomber. Fairey had redesigned...
continent by day and by night. The FaireyBattle squadrons, which had suffered heavy losses in daylight attacks during the Battle of France, were brought up to...
The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag"...
The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air...
The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel...
K was fitted to light and medium bombers in RAF service such as the FaireyBattle and Handley Page Hampden. It was also used in gun turrets, such as the...
The Fairey Albacore is a single-engine biplane torpedo bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation. It was primarily...
the attack on the Bismarck in 1941 and the Channel Dash in 1942. Some FaireyBattles appear in the 1942 movie Captains of the Clouds. The movie is in colour...
Command could contribute about 392 aircraft. Some Allied types, like the FaireyBattle, were approaching obsolescence. In the fighter force, only the British...
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding...
during the Second World War it was tasked with training aircrews on the FaireyBattle light bomber and Avro Anson training aircraft. It was later home to...
Germany. The AASF was formed on 24 August 1939 from the ten squadrons of FaireyBattle light bombers of 1 Group under the command of Air Vice-Marshal Patrick...
The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses. A development...
engine had been prioritised for the FaireyBattle light bomber and the Hawker Henley, a failed competitor to the Battle briefly adapted as a target tug which...
Hawker Hurricane (14 planes), Morane-Saulnier 406 (120 planes) and FaireyBattle (100 planes). The ship SS Lassell with 14 Hawker Hurricanes on board...
The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both...
Hurricane Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Fairey P.4/34 FaireyBattle Notes Mason, Francis (1994). The British Bomber since 1914. Putnam...
an interim aircraft, while more modern monoplane bombers such as the FaireyBattle were still in development. Structural elements were a mixture of steel...
Messerschmitt Bf 109 by air observer Sergeant F Letchford aboard a FaireyBattle flown by Flying Officer LH Baker from 88 Squadron. 20 September: The...
Europe were equipped with two main categories of bombers, single-engined FaireyBattle and twin-engined Bristol Blenheim light bombers and Armstrong Whitworth...
Global Information