RAN Gannets over HMAS Melbourne

Australia’s aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne was originally laid down for the Royal Navy as a light fleet carrier named “Majestic”. With the closing of hostilities in WW2 she was bought by the RAN and modified and named “Melbourne”. Her redesign incorporated the fundamental feature that saved all aircraft carriers from oblivion–the angled flight deck. This, along with the steam catapult and deck landing mirror sights, allowed carriers to cope with the heavier, faster jet aircraft coming on stream.

When Melbourne sailed from Glasgow in 1956, she was at the forefront of modern naval warfare, onboard were her new jet fighters, the Sea Venom and the double turboprop, anti-submarine aircraft, the Fairey Gannet. The Gannet had a long and distinguished lineage.

Fairey Aviation in Great Britain had designed naval torpedo bombers, fighters and reconnaissance aircraft from the early 1920s. Aviation buffs will recall that the first aircraft to cross the South Atlantic was a Fairey IIID; another IIID was the first to circumnavigate Australia; and there was the nimble Flycatcher fighter, too.

A Fairey IIID

Perhaps the most well-known of all Fairey aircraft, was their “Swordfish” torpedo–biplane, or “Stringbag’’ as she was called affectionately. Though she was outdated by the time she saw action throughout World War II, Swordfish crews fought in them with distinction, daring and great courage as they flew her into history. The most well-known Swordfish operation was the destruction of the Italian fleet at Taranto in the early days of the war.

The Gannet was yet another specialist aircraft designed for carrier operations. It was unusual in that it was based on a very desirable concept–that of the reliability, power and safety of a twin-engined aircraft combined with the positive aerodynamic and handling characteristics of a single-engined machine.

The Gannets were powered by a double Mamba turbo-prop engine, set within the fuselage. Each half of the engine drove its own four-blade propeller, sharing concentric, contra-rotating shafts.

Weapons, such as two homing torpedoes or depth charges, could be carried internally in the spacious fuselage and she could carry sixteen rockets mounted under the wings. She also featured a retractable ventral radar scanner, Fowler flaps, a double-folding wing and three separate crew cockpits.

In all the RAN ordered 36 of this very complex aeroplane. They served with 816 and 817 Sqdns aboard Melbourne and could operate through inclement weather, day or night. These unique machines were replaced in their sub-hunting role by the rugged twin piston-engined Grumman Trackers in 1967.