The Fairey P.4/34 was a competitor for an order for a light bomber to serve with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. Although not produced in that form, it formed the basis for the

Fulmar The fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family consists of two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on ...

long-range carrier-based fighter for the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

Development

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

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 State ...

issued Specification P.4/34 which called for a light bomber that could also be used in a close-support role. Fairey, Gloster and

Hawker Hawker or Hawkers may refer to: Places * Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Hawker, South Australia, a town * Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia * Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarct ...

tendered proposals; contracts were issued for the construction of examples of the Hawker and Fairey designs. The P.4/34 was a low-wing all-metal

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

, powered by a

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was late ...

engine, with a crew of two accommodated in tandem under a long-glazed

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an ...

. Its layout was similar to the earlier

Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and ...

bomber but the P.4/34 was smaller and had a wide track, inwards-retracting undercarriage. The aircraft was stressed for

dive bombing A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughou ...

, as required by the specification and carried its load of two bombs underwing (the competing Hawker aircraft had an internal bomb bay). Two Fairey P.4/34s were ordered, with the first ( serial ''K5099'') flying on 13 January 1937. The prototype

Hawker Henley The Hawker Henley was a British two-seat target tug derived from the Hawker Hurricane that was operated by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Design and development In 1934 Air Ministry Specification P.4/34 was issued which calle ...

followed on 10 March 1937. The Hawker was deemed superior but the demand for a light bomber had changed and it entered service as a

target tug A target tug is an aircraft which tows an unmanned drone, a fabric drogue or other kind of target, for the purposes of gun or missile target practice. Target tugs are often conversions of transport and utility aircraft, as well as obsolescent com ...

. The

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy ( da, Søværnet) is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and Greenland). O ...

purchased a licence to build the P.4/34 and a production line set up at the Danish Naval Shipyard ('' Orlogsværftet'') in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. None of the twelve aircraft ordered was completed by the time of the

Operation Weserübung Operation Weserübung (german: Unternehmen Weserübung , , 9 April – 10 June 1940) was Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. In the early morning of 9 Ap ...

the German Invasion of Denmark in 1940. The P.4/34 would serve as the basis for a two-seat, long-range, carrier-based fighter for the

to meet the requirements of Specification O.8/38. The second prototype P.4/34 (serial ''K7555'') was modified with, among other things, a reduced-span wing and lowered

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyropla ...

as an aerodynamic prototype for the

. It was later used to test retractable Fairey-Youngman flaps to be used on the

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Avia ...

fighter.Taylor 1974, pp. 305–306. Meanwhile, by 1938, the first prototype P4 had transferred to

RAE Farnborough The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in me ...

, where it was used for testing the effects of barrage balloons – by deliberately flying into a weighted cable hung beneath (not the actual tether cable). Initially the tests were carried out over

RAF Lakenheath Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, UK, north-east of Mildenhall and west of Thetford. The base also sits close to Brandon. Despite being an RAF sta ...

, transferring in September 1939 to RAF Pawlett Hams. A Battle ‘chase plane’ from

RAF Mildenhall Royal Air Force Mildenhall or RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located near Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a Royal Air Force station, it primarily supports United States Air Force (USAF) operations, ...

was provided to film the results. Later the P4 was joined by another Battle: although both were reinforced to withstand the impacts severe damage to the airframe was usual. Most of the flights were made by Johnny Kent (the original pilot chosen, A. E. Clouston, had taken leave to pursue the London – New Zealand speed record) – who accumulated more than 300 collisions and was awarded The Air Force Cross for his efforts. Of the P4 Kent said "a delightful aeroplane through all manoeuvres except for the spin which was really vicious..."Taylor 1974, p.306One of The Few, Johnny Kent 2008

Specifications (P.4/34)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. . * Taylor, H.A. ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1974. .

External links