Fairey Pintail

The Fairey Pintail was a two-seat, single-engine floatplane fighter designed by F. Duncanson of Fairey Aviation to the Royal Air Force Type XXI specification of 1919 for an amphibian reconnaissance fighter. A two-bay biplane on twin floats, it had an unusual tail unit, with the tailplane across the top of the rear fuselage and the rudder below it, to give the crew a clear view upward. Three prototypes were built, the first flying on 7 July 1920, but the RAF did not adopt it. The only orders were three Pintail IV aircraft, with a wider wing gap to improve the pilot's downward view, sold to the Imperial Japanese Navy.