My fascination with the Fairey Battle aeroplane continues. I came across another manufacturer (Special Hobby) that did a "Battle of France" Fairey Battle in my loval hobby shop. In conversation with a friend I was informed that the Airfix Fairey Battle was a little inaccurate. Instead of technical design drawings the Airfix model designers apparently were given a Painting guide (based on a modified Hurricane diagram) rather than the true technical drawings, This was a simple admin error, but as a consequence the tail and wing areas are too small (see below, I need to make this kit and do a compare and contract):
Post Script: When I see a cheaper copy (than £40 - Kindle could be an option) I will but this book (see below). I managed to flick through a reference library copy. It is a reassessment of the potential of the Fairey Battle. It claims it was more strategically/operationally mishandled rather than being an implicitly bad design.
Note: More successful designs had "two engines" - it seems that it was being asked to perform too much with too little horse power, with too big a crew (three)!
4 comments:
When I compare my 1/144th Battle with a Hurricane, the Battle is HUGE , albeit with a tiny little engine. I'll be interested to see how the Airfix one compares.
I knew when I saw the model I had to get it - just to do that. I have added the book that I found in a reference library to the original post. Turns out it was not a bad design compared to its rivals/alternatives .. being ultimately it was underpowered for a bomber with a crew of three! In fact operationally - squadrons started dropping teh crew to two!
Chatting with the author of 'Sweeping the Skies', a history of 40 Sqn RAF, he remarked that survivor accounts had little good to say of the Fairey Battle as a wartime aircraft. But they did point out one virtue: it was an excellent aircraft for formation flying. From that I infer that it was an aircraft of choice for aerial pageantry...
Cheers,
Ion
OMG! You cannot tell a more chilling tale than that, it was great until the bullets started flying (eek)! Asking people to fly it without fighter protection .. was not clever .. even the AASF Blenheims got battered. The Battle of France showed what happens to an uncoordinated effort .. the Home Chain system saved the UK in teh Battle of Britain!
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