Fairey Gannet Merch

Another great colour photo featuring a small insight into a sailors life and the nose of a fairey gannet on board the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Hermes in the 1960s. This is one of many photo's that were taken by my father whilst he served on HMS Hermes in the 1960s.

The Fairey Gannet is a carrier-borne Anti-submarine warfare and Airborne Early Warning aircraft of the immediate post World War II-era developed for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It has a conventional monoplane mid-wing and tricycle undercarriage. The pilot sits over the gas turbine engine atop the fuselage and behind the double, co-axial, contra-rotating propellors; the one (or two) crew sit in additional cockpit stations behind the pilot. The second crew member sat in a separate fuselage "bubble" facing the tail.

The prototype first flew in September 1949, and after successful testing the RN ordered the Gannet AS-1 as a new anti-submarine aircraft and the aircraft entered RN service in 1954.

The prototype first flew in September 1949, and after successful testing the RN ordered the Gannet AS-1 as a new anti-submarine aircraft and the aircraft entered RN service in 1954.