Fairey Albacore The Fairey Albacore was a British single - engine carrier - borne biplane torpedo bomber built by Fairey Aviation between 1939 and 1943 for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and used during the Second World War . It had a three - man crew and was designed for spotting and reconnaissance as well as level bombing , dive bombing and as a torpedo bomber . The Albacore , popularly known as the " Applecore " , was conceived as a replacement for the aging Fairey Swordfish , which had entered service in 1936 . However , the Albacore served with the Swordfish and was retired before it , being replaced by the Fairey Barracuda and Grumman Avenger monoplane torpedo bombers . Design and development . The Albacore prototypes were built to meet Specification S . 41 / 36 for a three - seat TSR ( torpedo / spotter / reconnaissance ) for the FAA to replace the Swordfish . The Albacore was designated TBR ( torpedo / bomber / reconnaissance ) and unlike the Swordfish , was fully capable of dive bombing : " " The Albacore was designed for diving at speeds up to 215 knots ( 400 km / h ) lAS with flaps either up or down , and it was certainly steady in a dive , recovery being easy and smooth . . . " " and the maximum under wing bomb load was 4 x 500 lb bombs . The Albacore had a more powerful engine than the Swordfish and was more aerodynamically refined . It offered the crew an enclosed and heated cockpit . The Albacore also had features such as an automatic liferaft ejection system which triggered in the event of the aircraft ditching . The first of two prototypes flew on 12 December 1938 and production of the first batch of 98 aircraft began in 1939 . Early Albacores were fitted with the Bristol Taurus II engine and those built later received the more powerful Taurus XII . Boscombe Down testing of the Albacore and Taurus II engine , in February 1940 , showed a maximum speed of 160 mph ( 258 km / h ) , at an altitude of 4 , 800 ft ( 1 , 463 m ) , at 11 , 570 lb ( 5 , 259 kg ) , which was achieved with four under - wing depth charges , while maximum speed without the depth charges was 172 mph ( 277 km / h ) . An Albacore fitted with the Taurus II engine and carrying a torpedo weighed 11 , 100 lb ( 5 , 045 kg ) . A total of 800 Albacores were built . Operational history . No . 826 Naval Air Squadron was specially formed to operate the first Albacores in March 1940 , being used for attacks against harbours and shipping in the English Channel , operating from shore bases , and for convoy escort for the rest of 1940 . s 826 and 829 Squadrons were the first to operate the Albacore from a carrier , with operations starting in November 1940 . Initially , the Albacore suffered from reliability problems with the Taurus engine , although these were later solved , so that the failure rate was no worse than the Pegasus that equipped the Swordfish . It remained less popular than the Swordfish , however , as it was less agile , with the controls being too heavy for a pilot to take effective evasive action after dropping a torpedo . Eventually , there were 15 first - line FAA squadrons equipped with the Albacore which operated widely in the Mediterranean . Albacores played a prominent role in the ill - fated raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo in July 1941 . More successfully they participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan and the fighting at El Alamein as well as supporting the landings at Sicily and Salerno . During the period September 1941 to end of June 1943 , No . 828 Squadron , based at RAF Hal Far , Malta , operated a squadron of Albacores under some of the most severe blitz conditions imaginable during the siege of Malta , mainly against Italian shipping and shore targets in Sicily . On 9 March 1942 , 12 Albacores from were launched to attack the German at sea near Narvik . Based on information from one of six radar equipped aircraft already launched , Albacores from 817 and 832 Squadrons launched torpedoes and some also attacked with their machine guns . A courageous attack came within 30 ft of success at the bow but ultimately the FAA ' s only torpedo attack on the " Tirpitz " at sea failed with the loss of two aircraft and damage to many of the others . In 1943 , the Albacore was progressively replaced in Fleet Air Arm service by the Barracuda . The last FAA Albacore squadron , No . 841 Squadron , ( which had been used for shore based attacks against shipping in the Channel for the whole of its career with the Albacore ) , disbanded in late 1943 . The Royal Air Force deployed some Albacores ; No . 36 Squadron based at Singapore acquired five to supplement its Vickers Vildebeest s at RAF Seletar in December 1941 . The remnants of the squadron was captured by the Japanese in March 1942 . In 1943 , No . 415 Squadron RCAF was equipped with Albacores ( presumably ex - FAA ) before the Flight operating them was transferred and reformed as 119 Squadron at RAF Manston in July 1944 . The squadron deployed later to Belgian airfields . Their Albacores were disposed of in early 1945 in favour of ASV - radar equipped Swordfish Mk . III s that the squadron kept until the end of the war in May . The Aden Communication Flight used 17 Albacores between the middle of 1944 and August 1946 . Some of these were delivered by sea on the in December 1945 ( all from Royal Navy stock ) . The Royal Canadian Air Force took over the Albacores and used them during the Normandy invasion , for a similar role until July 1944 . The Albacore was the last biplane to be used in combat by the RCAF . Surviving aircraft . Only one Albacore is known to survive , on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum . It was built using parts of Albacores N4389 and N4172 recovered from crash sites .