Albacore | The Fairey Albacore built by The Fairey Aviaiton company was a single-engine biplane built with the purpose of becoming a torpedo bomber and flying from aircraft carriers. Used by the Royal Navy's fleet air arm between 1939 and 1943, it had a three-man crew and was designed for spotting and reconnaissance and low level bombing, dive bombing and as a torpedo bomber. The Albacore, popularly known as the Applecore, was conceived as a replacement for the aging Fairey Swordfish. However, the Albacore served with the Swordfish and was retired before it, being replaced by the Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers. On 9 March 1942, 12 Albacores from the aircraft Carrier HMS Victorious were launched to attack the German battleship Tirpitz which was att sea near Narvik. Based on information from one of six radar equipped aircraft already launched, Albacores from 817 and 832 Squadrons launched torpedoes This courageous attack nearly succeeded but missed the Tirpitz by 30 feet of its bow but ultimately the FAAs only torpedo attack on the Tirpitz at sea failed with the loss of two Albacores and damage to many of the others. No. 826 Naval Air Squadron was specially formed to operate the first Albacores in March 1940, being used for attacks against harbours and shipping in the English Channel, operating from shore bases and for convoy escort for the rest of 1940. HMS Formidable's 826 and 829 Squadrons were the first to operate the Albacore from a carrier, with operations starting in November 1940. Initially, the Albacore suffered from reliability problems with the Taurus engine, although these were later solved, so that the failure rate was no worse than the Pegasus equipped Swordfish. The Albacore remained less popular than the Swordfish, as it was less manoeuvrable, with the controls being too heavy for a pilot to take much evasive action after dropping a torpedo |