The Fairey Gannet was a British carrier-borne aircraft of the post-Second World War era developed for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) by the Fairey Aviation Company. It is a mid-wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage and a crew of three, and double turboprop engine driving two contra-rotating propellers.
Originally developed to meet the FAA's anti-submarine warfare requirement, the Gannet would later be adapted for operations as an electronic countermeasures and carrier onboard delivery aircraft.
The pilot is seated well forward, conferring a good view over the nose for carrier operations, and sits over the Double Mamba engine, directly behind the gearbox and propellers. The second crew member, an aerial observer, is seated under a separate canopy directly behind the pilot. After the prototype, a second observer was included, in his own cockpit over the wing trailing edge. This addition disturbed the airflow over the horizontal stabilizer, requiring small finlets on either side. The Gannet has a large internal weapons bay in the fuselage and a retractable radome under the rear fuselage.
The Gannet's wing folds in two places to form a distinctive Z-shape on each side. The first fold is at about a third of the wing length where the inboard anhedral (down-sweep) changes to the outboard dihedral (up-sweep) of the wing (described as a gull wing). The second wing fold is at about two-thirds of the wing length. The length of the nose wheel shock absorber causes the Gannet to have a distinctive nose-high attitude, a common characteristic of carrier aircraft.
In FAA service, the Gannet generally wore the standard camouflage scheme of a Sky (duck-egg blue) underside and fuselage sides, with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces. Code numbers were typically painted on the side of the fuselage ahead of the wing; roundel and serial markings were behind the wing.
Modeled for RealFlight by Doug Kaye (DHK79), as a special request.
Read the aircraft description for flight control information.
Originally developed to meet the FAA's anti-submarine warfare requirement, the Gannet would later be adapted for operations as an electronic countermeasures and carrier onboard delivery aircraft.
The pilot is seated well forward, conferring a good view over the nose for carrier operations, and sits over the Double Mamba engine, directly behind the gearbox and propellers. The second crew member, an aerial observer, is seated under a separate canopy directly behind the pilot. After the prototype, a second observer was included, in his own cockpit over the wing trailing edge. This addition disturbed the airflow over the horizontal stabilizer, requiring small finlets on either side. The Gannet has a large internal weapons bay in the fuselage and a retractable radome under the rear fuselage.
The Gannet's wing folds in two places to form a distinctive Z-shape on each side. The first fold is at about a third of the wing length where the inboard anhedral (down-sweep) changes to the outboard dihedral (up-sweep) of the wing (described as a gull wing). The second wing fold is at about two-thirds of the wing length. The length of the nose wheel shock absorber causes the Gannet to have a distinctive nose-high attitude, a common characteristic of carrier aircraft.
In FAA service, the Gannet generally wore the standard camouflage scheme of a Sky (duck-egg blue) underside and fuselage sides, with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces. Code numbers were typically painted on the side of the fuselage ahead of the wing; roundel and serial markings were behind the wing.
Modeled for RealFlight by Doug Kaye (DHK79), as a special request.
Read the aircraft description for flight control information.
