Fairey Gannet

The Fairey Gannet was a carrier-borne aircraft designed for the Royal Navy and the first fixed-wing aircraft to combine the search and strike parts of anti-submarine warfare in one type. It was a mid-wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage, a crew of three and a double turboprop engine driving two counter-rotating propellers. The prototype first flew on 19 September 1949 and the Fleet Air Arm brought it into regular service four years later. Export customers included the Royal Australian Navy, the German Navy and the Indonesian Navy. Later Gannets were adapted for electronic countermeasures, carrier delivery and, as the AEW.3, airborne early warning, until the Fleet Air Arm retired them in December 1978.