The Fairey Fulcrum pre-war bomber

[Spinners 16,180]

Fairey Fulcrum Mk.I - No.15 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1938

During 1931, the British Air Ministry released Specification G.4/31 calling for a general purpose aircraft capable of carrying out level bombing, army co-operation, dive bombing, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation and torpedo bombing. Fairey's proposal was the Fairey G.4/31, a single-engine, two-seat biplane but this was rejected by the Air Ministry and the requirement was eventually met by the Vickers Wellesley. But even as work proceeded on the construction of the Fairey G.4/31 prototype, the Fairey design office had already started work on Operational Requirements for a light-bomber to Specification P.27/32 and also for a naval torpedo-bomber to Specification P.2/33. Marcel Lobelle, Fairey Aviation's chief designer, led the design team responsible for the light-bomber (a project that would eventually lead to the Fairy Battle) whilst John Walvis led the design team working on the naval torpedo-bomber.

With the Air Ministry strongly favouring a radial engine for the naval torpedo-bomber, Walvis set about designing the Fairey P.2/33 as an all metal, single-engine monoplane powered by the promising Bristol Pegasus XX nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial aero engine with a planned rating of 925 hp. During the design phase Walvis was able to incorporate aerodynamic innovations such as wing fillets, a fully enclosed cockpit and a fixed landing gear covered in streamlined spats. By mid-1934, Air Ministry officials could see such a high demand for the Rolls-Royce PV-12 (Merlin) engine that a decision was taken to prioritise production of the PV-12 for the planned interceptor/fighter aircraft (most notably F.36/34 & F.37/34) and the Fairey Battle. However, the Air Ministry were so impressed with Fairey's P.2/33 radial-engined design that they asked Fairey to submit it to a new Specification P.41/34 for a general purpose attack bomber for the RAF and authorised the production of three P.41/34 prototypes.

Renamed as the Fairey Fulcrum, development moved swiftly and on December 8th 1935 the first Fulcrum prototype (K4404) equipped with an early Bristol Pegasus IV rated at 680 hp made its maiden flight at Hayes in Middlesex before being transferred to RAF Martlesham Heath for service trials. The second and third prototypes were both powered by Bristol Pegasus VI engines rated at 750 hp and completed an accelerated programme of service trials during the Spring of 1936 leading to a production order of 145 Fulcrum Mk.I aircraft. Entering service with No.15 Squadron in March 1937 the Fulcrum Mk.I eventually served with seven RAF Squadrons and whilst largely obsolete by the start of the Second World War it remained in front-line service. However, it was not deployed to France as part of the British RAF Advanced Air Striking Force but served at home with No. 1 Group in operations against German shipping massed in the Channel ports for Operation Sealion. Their last combat sorties included raids on Boulogne and Calais in late 1940 but by early 1941 the remaining Fulcrums were transferred to Northern Ireland for coastal patrol work.

 

 

 

 

 

Skin Credit: Charles

In case you haven't recognised it this is the Northrop Gamma 2E. Reading up on this, I already knew about the A-17 Nomad but I had no idea of the later A-33 which, in turn, led me to learn about 'Little Norway' - gotta love wikipedia!

Edited Thursday at 10:59 AM by Spinners
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[Stratos 3,234]

Hey! Really beautiful, and very nice background story.