The Fairey Firefly was a British
fighter of the 1920s from
Fairey Aviation
The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military a ...
.
It was a single-seat, single-engine
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...
of mixed construction.
Development
The Firefly was a private-venture design, penned by
Marcel Lobelle. It was first flown on 9 November 1925 by
Norman Macmillan.
The
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of Stat ...
did not pursue the project, partly because of the American
Curtiss
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decad ...
engine used
and partly because of its wooden construction
and the Firefly I did not enter production.
Specifications (Firefly I)
See also
References
{{Fairey aircraft
1920s British fighter aircraft
Firefly I
Biplanes
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1925