Fairey IIIF: Interwar Military Workhorse

Few interwar military aircraft gave such widespread and valuable service as the Fairey IIIF. From Great Britain to North Africa, the Middle East and Far East, it was to be found, in both landplane and seaplane form, serving at RAF and Royal Navy
bases and on board aircraft carriers, capital ships and cruisers.
Its versatility enabled it to perform a variety of rôles—generalpurpose aircraft, ambulance, bomber, carrier-borne or catapultlaunched reconnaissance seaplane, gunnery spotter and target tug and glider-target launcher.
The IIIF also found military buyers in several countries, serving in Argentina, Chile, Greece and New Zealand in small numbers, and it proved useful as a test-bed for engines, silencers and naval equipment—a sure sign that it was a capable and reliable aeroplane. The greatest accolade bestowed upon the IIIF,
however, was that it was the chosen mount for Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) and Prince George when they flew with the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm.
Here, Philip Jarrett, one of our foremost aviation historians, has gathered together an astonishing collection of almost 500 photographs of this versatile aircraft, the vast majority of which have come from private archives and are hitherto unpublished, and supplied an original and incisive commentary to accompany them, the whole providing the most detailed appraisal of the Fairey IIIF ever to appear in print.

248 pages (including 8 in colour), 491 photographs, 20 line drawings, 31 artworks