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The Fairey Swordfish was a biplane torpedo bomber designed by the Fairey Aviation Company, used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during World War II. Originating in the 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was an outdated design by the start of the war in 1939, but remained in front-line service until V-E Day, outliving several types intended to replace it. It was initially operated primarily as a fleet attack aircraft; during its later years it was used as an anti-submarine and training craft. The Swordfish achieved some spectacular successes, notably sinking one and damaging two battleships of the ''Regia Marina'' (the Italian Navy) in the Battle of Taranto and the famous crippling of the ''Bismarck''. ==Design and development== The Swordfish was based on a Fairey design for the Greek Naval Air Service, who asked for a replacement of their Fairey IIIF Mk.IIIB aircraft, and on specifications M.1/30 and S.9/30, issued by the Air Ministry, the work having been initiated as a private venture (PV). Fairey informed the Air Ministry of their work on the Greek order (that country's interest eventually waned) and proposed its solution to the requirements for a spotter-reconnaissance plane, "spotter" referring to observing the fall of a warship's gunfire. Air Ministry Specification S.15/33 subsequently added the torpedo bomber role. The "Torpedo-Spotter-Reconnaissance" prototype TSR II (the PV was the TSR I) first flew on 17 April 1934. It was a large biplane with a metal airframe covered in fabric, and utilized folding wings as a space-saving feature for aircraft carrier use. An order was placed in 1935 and the aircraft entered service in 1936 with the Fleet Air Arm (then part of the RAF), replacing the Seal in the torpedo bomber role. The Swordfish was also capable of operating as a dive-bomber and in 1939 HMS ''Glorious'' used her Swordfish for a series of dive-bombing trials, during which 439 practice bombs were dropped at dive angles of 60, 67 and 70 degrees, against the target ship HMS ''Centurion''. Tests against a stationary target showed an average error of from a release height of and a dive angle of 70 degrees. Tests against a manoeuvring target showed an average error of from a drop height of and a dive angle of 60 degrees.〔Smith, p. 66.〕 By 1939, the Fleet Air Arm (now under Royal Navy control) had thirteen squadrons equipped with the Swordfish Mark I. There were also three flights of Swordfish equipped with floats, for use off aircraft catapult-equipped warships. One from spotted fall of shot and radioed gunnery corrections back to the ship during the Second Battle of Narvik in 1940, and subsequently sank the U-boat ''U-64''. The Swordfish pioneered the use of air to surface vessel radar (ASV) by carrier-borne aircraft to locate surface ships at night and through clouds.〔Harrison 2001, p. 9.〕 Swordfish flew from merchant aircraft carriers ("MAC ships"), twenty civilian cargo or tanker ships modified to carry three or four aircraft each, on anti-submarine duties with convoys. Three of these ships were Dutch-manned, flying Swordfish from 860 (Dutch) Naval Air Squadron. The others were manned by pilots and aircrew from 836 Naval Air Squadron, at one time the largest squadron, with 91 aircraft. When production ended on 18 August 1944, almost 2,400 had been built, 692 by Fairey and 1,699 in Sherburn by the Blackburn Aircraft Company. The most numerous version was the Mark II, of which 1,080 were made.〔Bishop, Chris, 2002, ''The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II'' Metrobooks ISBN 1-58663-762-2 ((p. 403 ))〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fairey Swordfish」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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