Aviation 72 Die-cast Model

Fairey Swordfish Mk.II - "LS326," Royal Navy Historic Flight

1:72 Scale.  Length: 6".  Wingspan: 7.75"

This Swordfish was built in 1943 at Sherburn in Elmett. She served with ‘L’ and ‘K’ Flights of 836 Naval Air Squadrons embarked on MAC ships Rapana and Empire MacCullum on North Atlantic convoy duties. Following her active service she was used for training and communications duties from the Royal Naval Air Station Culham near Oxford and Worth Down near Winchester.

In October of 1960, Fairey Swordfish LS326 was presented to the Royal Navy by the Westland Aircraft Company and has been flown ever since. In 1984 D-Day invasion stripes were added for the 40th Anniversary celebrations when she overflew the beaches of Normandy. Since 1987 she has worn her original wartime color scheme for North Atlantic Convoy duties with L Flight of 836 Squadron. Following extensive work by Bae Systems to her wings, LS 326 rejoined the display scene in 2010.

The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the British Royal Navy during WWII. Designed in the 1930s, the Swordfish remained in service to the end of the war in 1945. Approximately 2,400 of the aircraft were built

The Swordfish was equally at home on wheels or floats, which were easily interchanged, even on the flight deck of a warship. When operated with floats the aircraft would be recovered after flight by use of a deck crane. When operated from ships the catapult was used for launching.

This model of a Fairey Swordfish features: