The Fairey Firefly two-seater strike-fighter emerged from troubled beginnings to become one of the most widely used and effective aircraft of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It first saw service in 1944 during the attacks on the battleship Tirpitz as it lurked in the Norwegian fjords, then served in the Far East as the Fleet Air Arm tussled with the kamikaze threat. It went on to form an important part of several embryonic naval air arms in the early years of the Cold War and performed a vital combat role in Korea in the early 1950s. In this book, naval aviation historian Matthew Willis tells the story of this important aircraft using more than 160 photographs, many of them rare or unpublished, accompanied by a detailed commentary covering every aspect of the Firefly's varied career from fighter, to sub-hunter, to pilot-less target drone, in air forces all over the world.

About the Author
Matthew Willis is a writer and historian of aviation history. His first work of non-fiction was published in 2007, the first full-length work on the Blackburn Skua World War Two dive-bomber/fighter. Since then, he has focused on lesser-known areas of aviation history, particularly with regard to naval aviation, with titles on the Fairey Flycatcher, Blackburn Shark and Fairey Barracuda, and he wrote the first biography of the 1930s-40s test pilot Duncan Menzies. He focuses on original research and bringing out the voices of those who were there at the time. He is a frequent contributor to the historic aviation media, with many features published in journals such as Aeroplane, Flight Path, The Aviation Historian and Flypast, and currently writes the regular Flight Line' column on aviation history in Aeroplane. He has also contributed to heritage projects and has written for the Naval Records Society. He runs the website Naval Air History (www.navalairhistory.com).


Book Information
ISBN 9781913295899
Author Matthew Willis
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Key Publishing Ltd
Publisher Key Publishing Ltd