Fairey Gordon

The Fairey Gordon was a British two-seat light day bomber and general utility biplane of the early 1930s, built by the Fairey Aviation Company as a development of the Fairey IIIF. Its main change was the fitting of the Armstrong Siddeley Panther radial engine, rated at 525 to 605 horsepower in different variants. The prototype first flew on 3 March 1931, and 178 new aircraft were built for the Royal Air Force, with around 80 earlier IIIFs converted to a similar standard. The Mark I was followed by a Mark II with a larger fin and rudder before production gave way to the Swordfish. The type served in Egypt and Iraq, six went to the Egyptian Air Force, 49 were sent to New Zealand as pilot trainers, and seven target tugs at Habbaniya were hastily turned back into bombers in May 1941. The naval version was called the Seal. The only known survivor is a New Zealand Mark I that has long been under restoration.