The Most Unexpected Plane That Made Nazi Fleets Freak Out

At first glance, the aircraft climbing away from the Norwegian coast looked like a visitor from another time. Double wings stretched from its sides, fabric skin rippling in the Arctic wind. Yet this was no relic - this was the Fairey Albacore, the Royal Navy's newest torpedo bomber.

From his rear gunner's position, Telegraphist Air Gunner Dickie Sweet had a perfect view of the absurdity of his situation. In the summer of 1941, his fabric-covered biplane banked and turned through Nazi-occupied skies while modern all-metal fighters tangled in furious combat around him. Inside the heated cockpit, his fingers found the controls of his powered turret - one of many innovations that contrasted this aircraft's appearance.

The Royal Navy's most controversial design choice was now face-to-face with a diving Junkers 87. But first, Sweet would need to survive the next thirty seconds aboard the world’s last multirole biplane.

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[brianartillery]

And despite all the new bells and whistles of the Albacore, the Swordfish, with improvements, outlasted it, and was still in use at the end of the war.
That always amused me.

[MichaelCampin]

Powered Turret, that's a new one, not even Airfix make that mistake

[johnfisk]

In comparison to its contemporaries it cruised at a similar speed, had similar attack speeds and carried a superior load to the Swordfish to a greater range. As a dive bomber it was exceedingly accurate giving a good account of itself over the German army around Dunkirk and in the Western desert. At the time of design with the power of then available engines and length of deck of many of the carriers it needed the extra wing area to lift a full fuel load and large torpedo off the deck in high temperatures and still winds even with the period carriers at full speed. As soon as more powerful engines evolved then those loads the Royal Navy sought a retractable undercarriage monoplane. The Barracuda. The Albacore production line changed to make Barracudas instead. The Swordfish only continued to be made in its purpose built shadow factory so small escort carriers could use them and supply spare parts. The last Albacores were in use from Aden post war. Popular writers today compare it with naval aeroplanes designed much later and for larger carrier decks and faster carrier speeds. The Royal Navy commissioned a larger engine than the Merlin for it’s strike aeroplanes before the war but the plan was abandoned to free up Rolls Royce for Merlin work and that early Griffon did not become the later Griffon which was an new design. The Royal Navy has much to answer for in it’s operational types but it was the Royal Navy who asked for Sea Spitfires well before the war which was rejected by the government and the early big Griffon which was also rejected. It therefore sourced much of it’s new aeroplanes from spare USA types later in the war which met the Royal Navy’s operational desires. Of course almost all of these were tossed into the sea off British carriers by the end of September 1945. BTW it had no powered turret and was an all metal structure with only the flying surfaces covered in fabric.

[Repinnc]

A British plane with bad cockpit environmental conditions? As a former Jetstream, both 32 and 41 and Bae-146 driver I’m shocked😮 shocked I am!

[attaat]

Powered Turret? That's a new one, where are the pictures of it because even Fairey doesn't know it had a powered turret...

[richmorg]

Many of the Albacore pictures have opened cockpit's and must therefore be Swordfish's

[Nastyswimmer]

0:42 - the Albacore didn't have a powered turret, despite what you read in Wikipedia. It had one or two manually controlled Vickers machine guns that required the rear cockpit canopy to be raised when they were used.

[philiphumphrey]

The Albacores also dismally failed on the one occasion in 1942 when they caught the Tirpitz in open water. Churchill was furious.The basic problem was the Albacores were too slow, especially when trying to overtake and attack a battleship steaming at 30 knots into a stiff breeze (and putting up a lot of flak). More modern aircraft like Grumman Avengers might have succeeded where' the Albacores failed.

[MrCateagle]

Albacore makes an interesting comparison to the Douglas TBD.

[davidrudd]

And yet the Swordfish outlasted the Albacore

[timgosling]

This is what happens when you just read a wiki page, errors and all. As I'm sure many have said the Albacore had no powered turret, just a steel post you could plonk a gun on.
The Albacores with open cockpits are called Swordfish.
Nobody freaked out.

[richmorg]

It is strange that they could not fit Rayda to the Albacore and yet to the older Swordfish and why did they not fit a enclosed cockpit to the Swordfish like Canada later did to protect the crew from the cold weather.

[Dave-dm]

Swordfish delivered capabilities that today are done by helicopters. It was also the only type that could operate from carriers heaving over Atlantic swells. How the pilots were able to synchronise their descent with the rising and falling deck is anyone’s guess.

[navypowertv]

The Swordfish and Albacore were both better than the Barracuda monoplane torpedo that replaced the Albacore!

[brianmeadows]

Since we're using fish names, I reckon HMS Ramoa would be a great name for a boarding ship,
as in getting close up, jumping on and taking over the ship.

[Brian-omhh]

Looking carefully at the Fairy Albacore, it isn't a million miles away from that old Russian bi-plane we sometimes

[outinthesticks]

The swordfish seems to have been a very good torpedo bomber, just extremely vulnerable to opposition fighters

[LeonAust]

If only the British got the Blackburn Firebrand sorterted out in late 1943 onwards

[TheMVberyl]

1:20 - I don't think 1930's British designers were wearing 1950's Usanian suits and bowties!!!

[dennisgauck]

The stringbag(Swordfish) crippled the Bismarck and became legend !