Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly was a British Second World War - era carrier - borne fighter aircraft and anti - submarine aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm ( FAA ) . It was superior in performance and firepower to its predecessor , the Fulmar , but only entered operational service towards the end of the war . Designed around the contemporary FAA concept of a two - seat fleet reconnaissance / fighter , the pilot and navigator / weapons officer were housed in separate stations . The design proved to be sturdy , long - ranging and docile in carrier operations , although the limitations of a single engine in a heavy airframe reduced overall performance . The Fairey Firefly served in the Second World War as a fleet fighter but in postwar service , although it was superseded by more modern jet aircraft , the Firefly was adapted to other roles , including strike operations and anti - submarine warfare , remaining a mainstay of the FAA until the mid - 1950s . Both the UK and Australia Fireflies flew ground attack operations off various aircraft carriers in the Korean War . In foreign service , the type was in operation with the naval air arms of Australia , Canada , India , and the Netherlands whose Fireflies carried out a few attack sorties as late as 1962 in Dutch New Guinea . Design and development . Before the war , in 1938 the Air Ministry issued two specifications for two naval fighters , a conventional and a " turret fighter " . Performance for both was to be 275 knots at 15 , 000 ft while carrying an armament , for the conventional fighter , of eight 0 . 303 Browning machine gun s or four 20mm Hispano cannon . This would replace the Fulmar which had been an interim design . These specifications were updated the following year and several British manufacturers tendered their ideas . Further changes to the official specification followed , the turret fighter specification was dropped and a modified specification issued to cover single and dual seat fighters capable of 330 and 300 knots respectively . Fairey offering designs that could be single or two seater and powered by the Rolls - Royce Griffon or alternatively a larger airframe with a Napier Sabre . After consideration of manufacturers responses , Specification N . 5 / 40 replaced the earlier specifications . Due to the necessity of navigating over open sea , it was for a two - seater alone . For defence of naval bases a separate single seater design would lead to the Blackburn Firebrand . The Firefly was designed by H . E . Chaplin at Fairey Aviation ; in June 1940 , the Admiralty ordered 200 aircraft " off the drawing board " with the first three to be the prototypes . The prototype of the Firefly flew on 22 December 1941 . Although it was 4 , 000 lb ( 1 , 810 kg ) heavier than the Fulmar ( largely due to its armament of two 20 mm Hispano cannon in each wing ) , the Firefly was 40 mph ( 60 km / h ) faster due to improved aerodynamics and a more powerful engine , the 1 , 735 hp ( 1 , 294 kW ) Rolls - Royce Griffon IIB . The Firefly is a low - wing cantilever monoplane with oval - section metal semi - monocoque fuselage and conventional tail unit with forward - placed tailplane . Powered by a Rolls - Royce Griffon liquid - cooled piston engine with a three - blade airscrew . The Firefly had retractable main landing gear and tail wheel , with the hydraulically operated main landing gear retracting inwards into the underside of the wing centre - section . The aircraft also had a retractable arrester hook under the rear fuselage . The pilot ' s cockpit was over the leading edge of the wing and the observer / radio - operator / navigator aft of the wing trailing edge - positions which gave better visibility for operating and landing . Both crew had separate jettisonable canopies . The all - metal wing could be folded manually , with the wings ending up along the sides of the fuselage . When in the flying position , the wings were hydraulically locked . Handling and performance trials were first undertaken at Boscombe Down in 1942 ; by 1944 the Firefly was cleared to use underwing rocket projectiles and by April 1944 tests with a double underwing load of 16 rockets and two 45 gallon ( 205 l ) drop tanks still provided acceptable handling . Further testing with two 90 gallon ( 410 l ) drop tanks or two 1 , 000 lb ( 454 kg ) bombs showed acceptable handling , albeit with " . . . a small adverse effect on handling . . . " while " . . . handling with a single 1 , 000 lb ( 454 kg ) bomb was unpleasant , but manageable . " Performance trials at 11 , 830 lb ( 5 , 366 kg ) indicated a maximum speed of 315 mph ( 508 km / h ) at 16 , 800 ft ( 5 , 121 m ) ; a climb to 20 , 000 ft ( 6 , 096 m ) took 12 . 4 minutes , with a maximum climb rate of 2 , 140 fpm ( 10 . 87 m / s ) at 3 , 800 ft ( 1 , 158 m ) , and a service ceiling of 30 , 100 ft ( 9 , 174 m ) . Operational service . The primary variant of the aircraft used during the Second World War was the Mk I , which was used in all theatres of operation . In March 1943 , the first Firefly Mk Is were delivered but they did not enter operational service until July 1944 when they equipped 1770 Naval Air Squadron aboard . The first operations were in Europe where Fireflies carried out armed reconnaissance flights and anti - shipping strikes along the Norwegian coast . Fireflies also provided air cover during strikes on the German battleship in 1944 . Throughout its operational career , the Firefly took on increasingly more demanding roles from fighter to anti - submarine warfare stationed mainly with the British Pacific Fleet in the Far East and Pacific theatres . Fireflies carried out attacks on oil refineries and airfields and gained renown when they became the first British - designed and - built aircraft to overfly Tokyo . After the Second World War , the Firefly remained in front line service with the Fleet Air Arm until the mid - 1950s . The UK also supplied the aircraft to Canada , Australia , Denmark , Ethiopia , the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service , India and Thailand . The Royal Canadian Navy employed 65 Fireflies of the Mk AS 5 type onboard its own aircraft carriers between 1946 and 1954 . It also had some Mk I Fireflies , and sold several additional examples of these to Ethiopia in the early 1950s . British and Australian Fireflies carried out anti - shipping patrols and ground strikes off various aircraft carriers in the Korean War as well as serving in the ground - attack role in the Malayan Emergency . The Firefly ' s FAA front line career ended with the introduction of the Gannet . Several versions of the type were developed later in its career to serve as trainers , target tugs and drone aircraft . As an example , the Indian Navy acquired 10 aircraft in the mid - 50s for target tug purposes . In 1960 , in response to Indonesian territorial demands and threats , the Netherlands deployed Firefly AS . Mk 4s to Dutch New Guinea . As Indonesian forces began to infiltrate the territory , the Fireflies carried out a few attack operations in early 1962 , before a political settlement was negotiated . Survivors . There are approximately 24 Fairey Fireflies surviving worldwide , including three airworthy examples and at least one other being restored to flying condition . The Fleet Air Arm Museum possesses two Fireflies , the latest acquisition arriving in 2000 from the Imperial War Museum Duxford . Firefly " WB271 " was destroyed in July 2003 during an aerobatic air display at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford , Cambridgeshire - Europe ' s largest display of vintage warplanes . There are three airworthy Fireflies at present : " WB518 " was one of the first 10 Mk 6s built , but retained the earlier Mk 5 fuselage . It was originally delivered to the Royal Australian Navy ' s 817 Squadron and then served in 816 Squadron before being retired and ending up as a memorial on a pole in Griffith , New South Wales , Australia . " WB518 " was then purchased by American Eddie Kurdziel , a Northwest Airlines captain and former U . S . Navy pilot . " WD518 " was extensively restored and made its first public appearance at Oshkosh in 2002 . Restoration of " WD518 " used parts salvaged from " WD828 " which was written off after a crash into a cabbage field in Camden , New South Wales in 1987 . Other survivors include - in Australia : The Royal Thai Air Force Museum in Bangkok , Thailand has a Firefly Mk I on display . A sole remaining Firefly of the 10 acquired by India is displayed at the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa . An ex - Swedish Firefly has recently ( October 2011 ) appeared in a hangar at the IWM Duxford , Cambridge . It is believed to be a former target tug brought to the UK for restoration to flying condition . As well as the Canadian Warplane Heritage ' s ex - Australian Firefly , two other Fireflies are known to exist in Canada : one is at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa and another is being restored at the Shearwater Aviation Museum at Eastern Passage ( near Dartmouth ) , Nova Scotia . Both are Mk I models that served in the Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1954 , after which they were sold to the Ethiopian Air Force . Following their discovery in the Ethiopian desert in 1993 , they were repatriated to Canada .