Fairey Gannet AEW.3

The Fairey Gannet AEW.3 was the airborne early warning version of the Fairey Gannet carrier aircraft, built for the Royal Navy to replace the ageing Douglas Skyraider in that role. It carried the AN/APS-20 search radar in a large radome under the fuselage, which required a rebuilt fuselage with a new cabin for two radar observers behind the pilot, relocated exhausts, a larger fin and a longer undercarriage. The prototype first flew in August 1958 and 44 production aircraft were built at the Fairey factory at Hayes, serving with 849 Naval Air Squadron from 1960. It was meant as a stop-gap until a purpose-built system for the planned CVA-01 carriers arrived; when that programme was cancelled the Gannet AEW.3 stayed in service until HMS Ark Royal was withdrawn in 1978. A proposed AEW.7 with a dorsal rotodome never went ahead.