Supermarine Type 322

The Supermarine Type 322, nicknamed Dumbo for its corpulent appearance, was a prototype British carrier-borne torpedo, dive bomber and reconnaissance aircraft of the Second World War, designed to Specification S.24/37 as a replacement for the Royal Navy's Fairey Albacore. It was a high-wing, mainly wooden monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage and folding wings, and its most distinctive feature was a variable-incidence wing that could be set from 2 to 16 degrees, letting the fuselage keep a good angle for visibility while the wing gave very high lift. It was first meant to use the Rolls-Royce Exe engine, but the Exe was cancelled in 1938 and the Merlin took its place. Only two were built, and the first flew on 6 February 1943, by which time the competing Fairey Barracuda had entered service, so both Type 322s became experimental aircraft; in 1946 the second was used as a chase aircraft in low-speed handling trials of the Supermarine Attacker.