Fairey Sabrefish Mk-II

When in early 1940 the first Fairey Albacores showed no great increase of performance over the Swordfish, the Royal Navy began to look for ways to extend the life of the Swordfish.

A production Swordfish Mk I was taken from the assembly line and fitted with a Napier Sabre IIA engine. This provided almost three times the power of the Pegasus engine fitted to the Swordfish I. Maximum speed was raised from 230km/h to over 400km/h with a payload increased from one to two torpedo’s.

The Sabre engined version was officially designated Swordfish Mk V, but the crews quickly named them Sabrefish. This was taken up by the Royal Navy and the Swordfish Mk V became the Sabrefish Mk I.

In 1942 the Sabrefish Mk II arrived with bigger fuel tanks and the ability to fit underwing rockets.