Aircraft of the ADF- N3 Fairey Gannet

N3 – Fairey Gannet

To modernise the Fleet Air Arm, and keep pace with interoperability with the Royal Navy, the RAN was given Government approval to proceed to the next generation of carrierborne aircraft in the early 1950s.

This decision coincided with the completion of Australia’s new carrier, HMAS Melbourne, and involved replacing the Sea Fury with the Sea Venom, and the Firefly with the Gannet. An order was then announced on December 22 1952 for 40 Fairey Gannets for the RAN. The acquisition was to comprise 37 operational anti-submarine aircraft, the Gannet AS.1, and three dual trainers, designated the T.2.

The Gannet had been the first turboprop aircraft in the world to land on an aircraft carrier. First flown on September 19 1949, the first prototype Gannet, serialled VR546 (c/n F.8270) made its historic deck landing aboard HMS Illustrious on June 19 1950. A unique feature of the Gannet was its Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba engine. This consisted of two compact Mamba ASM.3 engines, modified and linked to a common gearbox with two contra rotating propellers. Not only offering a saving in weight and drag over a conventional twin engined aircraft, this configuration resulted in no engine out asymmetric problem. In addition, the aircraft could cruise on one engine giving greater endurance.

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