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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1640.PDF
148 FLIGHT AUGUST IOTH, 1944 With Youngman air brakes,' and carrying a 1,750-lb. torpedo, the Barracuda is a formidable opponent in many theatres of war. Fairey Barracuda How Aircraft Production Qroup Scheme has Enabled Schedule to be Met and Even Exceeded a Parent" and "Daughter" Firms INCREASING reference to new aircraft carriers in opera tion with the Allied Fleets has given some indication, by inference, of the great expansion of the Fleet Air Arm. These new ships have required the production of many hundreds of naval aircraft, and, in addition, their equivalent in spares which may, in certain categories, amount to 60 per cent, of complete aircraft output. Three broad categories of aircraft have been supplied. There are those for immediate operational duty, as borne in the ships at sea and, to a lesser degree, working from land bases over vital sea areas such as the English Channel. Secondly come the squadrons in immediate reserve behind the operational squadrons. These are more than reserves in that some of them are allocated to working-up duty for new types of aircraft which will in time supplant those on active service. Thirdly, there is the wide range- of training aircrafj required not only for flying and tactical training of naval airmen, but also those on target-towing work for the warships, for land-defence batteries and for merchant service gunners. To meet the heavy demands for aircraft arising from these commitments, the system of group manufacture of specialised naval aircraft has been in operation for some time on a similar plan to that so successfully employed with Halifax and Lancaster heavy bomber production. In this connection particular interest centres on the Fairey Barracuda Group, which, it may now be disclosed, is in full production of the Navy's latest torpedo dive-bomber. The Barracuda production unit was initiated by Sir Ernest Lemon in 1942 during his time at the Ministry of Produc tion where he was given the task of co-ordinating and stimulating naval aircraft production to meet the urgent demands of the Admiralty and M.A.P. The Fairey Aviation Co., Ltd., has specialised in naval requirements for many years, and includes in its history such remarkable aircraft as the Flycatcher, Fairey III.I) and III.F, the Seal, the Swordfish and the Fulmar. Under the Group scheme the Fairey company stands as the parent , firm to satellite or daughter firms which, in turn, employ ^ the services of hundreds of satellite sub-contractor firms. Originally, three daughter firms were in the Group: '(1) Blackburn Aircraft, which had the Swordfish in hand at another of its main factories; (2) Boulton Paul Aircraft, Ltd., which was then tailing off production of the Defiant two-seat fighter; and (3) Westland Aircraft, Ltd., also engaged on twin-engined fighter and single-engined fighter production. At the beginning of 1943 Westland left the Barracuda Group in order to develop another Group engaged on Seafire production. Its subsequent commit- 'ments for Barracuda production were taken over by the Blackburn company. The Fairey company was responsible for design in all its aspects, for initial tooling, and for "scheduling" the job throughout the Group. Sub-contract Units Behind the three major units engaged on Barracuda pro duction extended a network of numerous major and minor sub-contract firms producing parts and pieces. Some of these sub-contract units were of great importance in that they undertook production of complete components and of special naval equipment which served the Group as a whole and required no more than installation or assembly on the main production lines. Thus Firm A—which may typify such a concern as Beaton's or Accles and Pollock—" stood as a sub-contractor to Fairey's, Blackburn's and Boulton Paul, and part of the Group's directive work was to organise and "channel" production from such a key
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