£50k boost to long-standing effort to rebuild WW2-era Barracuda bomber

The National Museum of the Royal Navy has been given a grant to help with cataloguing the archives of Fairey Aviation – for nearly half a century one of the mainstays of the British aircraft industry.

The firm produced some of the best known aircraft in the first half century of naval aviation, from the dawn of aircraft carriers through to the Gannet airborne early warning plane which served until the late 1970s.

It’s best known, however, for its WW2 output: the legendary Swordfish and its successor, the Barracuda, both torpedo bombers.

Although more numerous – some 2,600 were built – and used extensively in the second half of WW2, including attacks on the Tirpitz in Norway, not a single intact Barracuda remains.

A team of enthusiasts at the Fleet Air Arm museum has been rebuilding one recovered from a bog in Northern Ireland more than 50 years ago, using parts found at wreck sites or made from scratch.

The £50k grant to thoroughly study the Fairey archives – more than six decades after the firm closed – should give the team, and others researching the nation’s aviation history, access to blueprints, technical drawings, development notes, test reports, and design documents.