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The De Havilland D.H. 82A Tiger Moth first flew on October 26, 1931 and most of the Royal Air Force pilots that served in World War II trained on this biplane. This photo shows one in the Western Desert, around 1941. |
DE
HAVILLAND D.H. 82A 'TIGER MOTH'
DE
HAVILLAND DH82 TIGER MOTH
DE
HAVILLAND TIGER MOTH II
The Douglas B-18A Bolo, which was based on the Douglas DC-2, was first delivered to the United States Army Air Corps in February of 1937 and was intended as a replacement for the B-10 bomber. |
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B-18
BOLO MEDIUM BOMBER
DOUGLAS
B-18A "BOLO"
DOUGLAS
B-18A BOLO
The Douglas 0-35 was used, in American military service, for reconnaissance, before World War II. |
O-31, O-35, O-43, AND O-46A OBSERVATION MONOPLANE
The Fairey Swordfish is a three-seat torpedo bomber that was used by the United Kingdom, during World War II. This biplane, which was also used by the Royal Navy for minelaying and as a anti-submarine aircraft, first flew in April 1934, and it was involved in the attack on the German battleship Bismark, in May 1941, and on the Italian fleet at Taranto, on November 12, 1940. In this attack, which started around 10:00 p.m., twenty Fairey Swordfish, from the HMS Eagle and the HMS Illustrious, half of which were carrying torpedoes, sunk three Italian ships, including one battleship, and damaged six others, with the loss of only two aircraft. The main version of the Fairey Swordfish was the Mk II and variants include the Mk IV, which were converted Mk Is and Mk IIs, with enclosed cockpits. The maximum speed of the aircraft was 138 mph (222 km/h), the service ceiling was 10,700 feet (3,260 m), and it had a range of 550 miles (885 km), when it was loaded with a torpedo. The aircraft was armed with one forward-firing .303 inch Vickers machine gun and it had one .303 Vickers gun or one Browing machine gun in the rear cockpit. The aircraft could carry one torpedo, eight 3 inch rockets, or four 250lb (113kg) bombs under its wings. 689 Swordfish Mk Is were produced by Fairey Aviation Company before World War II, and, from 1940, Blackburn Aircraft produced 300 Mk Is, 1,080 Mk IIs, which had metal-skinned lower wings, to facilitate rocket firing, and 327 Mk IIIs. |
"SWORDFISH ATTACK
AT TARANTO"
THE
ATTACK
FAIREY
SWORDFISH
FAIREY
SWORDFISH MK II
THE
FAIREY SWORDFISH IN PROFILE
A Fokker D-IX in United States Army Air Service, which received it in 1922 and designated the PW-6. |