WI no Fairey Swordfish

Inspired by the no Hurricane thread.

Some context

The Fairey Swordfish
Nov 10, 2010 Articles, Weapons Technology, WWII 2

Obsolete it may have been, but the Fairey Swordfish remained in front-line service throughout the Second World War, distinguishing itself as the last biplane in the world to see active service.

Although Taranto was arguably its finest hour, Swordfish scored many other notable successes, notably damaging the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941, helping sink 23 U-boats in the North Atlantic (including the first ever sunk by an aircraft at night), and stalking Axis merchant shipping off Norway and in the Mediterranean.

The Swordfish was an anomaly in WW 2 a fabric covered biplane which served to 'VE day and out lived some of its intended successors . It only had 4 variants none of which were major modifications or engine upgrades.


It started life as a speculative design so what if it was never designed . What other aircraft might have taken its place, how differently might events turned out if the Greeks hadn't expressed an interest in replacing their Fairey III with another fairey product and what became the swordfish never developed.
 
Well, the logical answer is to continue with the Blackburn Shark (which had a very similar performance to the Stringbag), and then accelerate the Barracuda.
 
The Shark would probably been followed by the Albacore or a very simular design just as in OTL. Whether the Shark would have outlived the Albacore as the Swordfish did OTL is another matter. If niether the Swordfish or the Albacore is built by Faireys then there is a possibility that a monoplane Torepedo aircraft is developed by Faireys earlier than the Barracudor in OTL to try and get back in the game.
 
Well, the logical answer is to continue with the Blackburn Shark (which had a very similar performance to the Stringbag).

Also similar in performance of the Great Lakes TG-2,
8-36n.jpg

that was derived from the Martin T4M of 1927
 
I am voting for the biplane Albacore because it could fly-off the short decks of escort carriers and keep U-boats submerged.
 
The question is what is the effect of the loss of one Pegasus-powered tube-and-rag bi-plane capable of delivering a torpedo. Despite the legend, what made the Stringbag legend was not some innate quality of the aircraft, but rather some innate quality within the crew. Had the Shark soldiered on, the legend would still have existed, and in the absence of the Shark, other designers could whip something up in six weeks without a sweat. Westland gave up on a monoplane PV.7 when it failed the high-speed dive test. It was, of course, faster than the Stringbag, and Westland lost money on the aircraft. Some Westland aircraft, adaptable for torpedo carriage, flew on the Mount Everest frolic, sponsored by that sweetheart, Lady Houston. I wonder what a Lysander torpedo bomber would look like.

LYSANDER_001.jpg
 
Top