The Fairey Barracuda Had a Deadly Secret — Pilots Kept Dying and Nobody Knew Why скачать в хорошем качестве

The Fairey Barracuda Had a Deadly Secret — Pilots Kept Dying and Nobody Knew Why

The Fairey Barracuda was Britain's first all-metal torpedo bomber, designed to replace the aging Swordfish biplanes. But development was plagued by engine problems when Rolls-Royce canceled the intended powerplant, forcing a switch to the underpowered Merlin. By the time it entered service in 1943, pilots discovered the aircraft had deadly quirks that would kill experienced crews without warning. During training, five Barracudas flipped inverted and crashed during torpedo practice before engineers discovered that retracting dive brakes at high speed while applying rudder created forces no pilot could overcome. The problem was fixed with new procedures. But pilots kept dying. In April 1944, 42 Barracudas struck the German battleship Tirpitz in Kaafjord, Norway, during Operation Tungsten. Flying in two waves at dawn, they scored 14 direct hits and crippled the most feared battleship in the Kriegsmarine. It was the most successful carrier strike of the war against a major surface combatant. The Tirpitz never went to sea again. But mysterious crashes continued. Experienced pilots would be flying normally when their aircraft would suddenly nose down and crash. No warning. No radio call. No attempt to recover. It wasn't until 1945 that investigators discovered the hidden killer: hydraulic fluid containing ether was leaking into cockpits, rendering pilots unconscious in seconds. Pilots weren't wearing oxygen masks below 10,000 feet because they didn't think they needed them. Once the Admiralty mandated oxygen at all altitudes, the crashes stopped. In the Pacific, the Barracuda's performance degraded by 30% in tropical heat, and the aircraft was gradually replaced by American Grumman Avengers. But despite its problems—the inverted dive trap, the ether leak, the underpowered engine—the Barracuda proved that when it mattered, it could get the job done. The pilots just had to survive their own aircraft long enough to reach the enemy. #militaryhistory #ww2 #britishsoldier #faireybarracuda #raf #ww2documentary SOURCES OFFICIAL HISTORIES & PRIMARY SOURCES: Air Ministry Specification S.24/37 (1937) - Original torpedo bomber requirement Admiralty Fleet Air Arm operational records - Operation Tungsten after-action reports Boscombe Down test reports (1942-1943) - Performance testing and handling characteristics Admiralty Order (May 1945) - Oxygen mask requirement for all Barracuda operations Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment investigations (1943) - Inverted dive phenomenon OPERATION TUNGSTEN - TIRPITZ ATTACK: Operation Tungsten official records (3 April 1944) BBC wartime broadcast - Commander Anthony Kimmins account Imperial War Museums Collections - Film footage and photographs Philip "Bud" Abbott interview - Pilot account from 2nd wave Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner operational reports - Strike Leader ENIGMA intercepts - Tirpitz readiness status March 1944 Norwegian resistance reports - Kaafjord defenses and smoke generators AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT & SPECIFICATIONS: "The Fairey Barracuda" by Matthew Willis (Key Books) Fairey Aviation Company records - Design and production Rolls-Royce Exe engine cancellation documentation (1940) Merlin 30 and Merlin 32 performance specifications Production records: Fairey (1,192), Blackburn (700), Boulton Paul (692), Westland (18) Total production: 2,602 aircraft TRAINING ACCIDENTS & HYDRAULIC SYSTEM: Fleet Air Arm accident reports (1943-1945) Crash investigation: Barracuda DP872, Blackhead Moss (August 1944) Crash investigation: Barracuda LS931, Isle of Jura (January 1945) Hydraulic fluid composition analysis - Ether content discovery Royal Engineers recovery operations (1971) - Fleet Air Arm Museum wreckage A&AEE inverted dive investigation reports (mid-1943) OPERATIONAL SERVICE: 827 Squadron operational records (first operational unit, January 1943) 810 Squadron - Salerno landings (July 1943) Operation Cockpit - Sabang, Sumatra raid (21 April 1944) British Pacific Fleet carrier operations (1944-1945) Squadron histories: 23 front-line FAA squadrons equipped with Barracudas RAF operations: 567, 667, 679, 691 Squadrons Royal Canadian Navy operations (1946-1948) PACIFIC THEATER OPERATIONS: British Pacific Fleet operational records 827 Squadron aboard HMS Illustrious - Operations against Japanese forces Performance degradation reports - 30% reduction in tropical conditions Replacement by Grumman TBF/TBM Avengers Victory over Japan Day fleet composition: 5 Avenger squadrons, 4 Barracuda squadrons Mobile Naval Air Bases (MONABs) Australia supply records