Blackburn Firebrand
| Firebrand | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Centaurus IX-powered Firebrand T.F. Mk IV | |
| Role | Strike fighter |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Blackburn Aircraft |
| First flight | 27 February 1942 |
| Introduction | 1945 |
| Retired | 1953 |
| Primary user | Royal Navy |
| Produced | 1942–47 |
| Number built | 220 + 3 prototypes |
| Variants | Blackburn Firecrest |
The Blackburn Firebrand was a British single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and the allocation of its Napier Sabre piston engine by the Ministry of Aircraft Production for the Hawker Typhoon caused it to be redesigned as a strike fighter to take advantage of its load-carrying capability. Development was slow and the first production aircraft was not delivered until after the end of the war. Only a few hundred were built before it was withdrawn from front-line service in 1953.
In general, the Fleet Air Arm had required fighters that were capable of navigating long ranges over sea and speed differential over attackers was not critical. Defence of British naval bases was a RAF commitment but provision had not been made for this and so the Admiralty accepted that it would have to take on the duty. For this it needed an interceptor fighter and experience in the Norwegian Campaign of early 1940 had also shown a high-performance, carrier-based, single-seat fighter would be an advantage. Blackburn tendered their B-37 design using the Napier Sabre 24-cylinder H-type engine, and this was accepted by June 1940 with a proposal to order "off the drawing board" (meaning without prototypes). Air Ministry Specification N.11/40—stating a minimum top speed of 350 knots (650 km/h; 400 mph)—was raised to cover this design and an order placed in January 1941 for three prototypes.
The B-37, given the service name "Firebrand" on 11 July 1941, was a low-winged, all-metal monoplane. Aft of the cockpit the fuselage was an oval-shaped stressed-skin semi-monocoque, but forward it had a circular-section, tubular-steel frame that housed the 169-imperial-gallon (770 l; 203 US gal) main fuel tank and the 71-imperial-gallon (320 l; 85 US gal) auxiliary fuel tank behind the engine. The radiators for the neatly cowled Sabre engine were housed in wing-root extensions. The large wing consisted of a two-spar centre section with manually folded outer panels (with five degrees of dihedral) to allow more compact storage in the hangar decks of aircraft carriers. To increase lift and reduce landing speed the wing was fitted with large, hydraulically powered Fowler flaps that extended to the edges of the Frise ailerons. The fixed armament of four 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano autocannon was fitted in the outer wing panels with 200 rounds per gun. The fin and rudder were positioned forward of the elevator to ensure spin recovery and that the rudder would retain its effectiveness. The mainwheels of the conventional landing gear were mounted at the ends of the centre wing section and retracted inwards. The Firebrand was unusual in that there was an airspeed gauge mounted outside of the cockpit so that during landing the pilot would not have to look down into the cockpit to take instrument readings, foreshadowing the modern heads-up display.
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