If being a biplane design in 1938 was not bad enough, the Albacore also had the dubious honour of sharing its entire operational life with the aircraft it was intended to replace. Mind you, compared to the spartan “Stringbag” the Albacore was a more advanced and even luxurious aircraft, specially in relation with the crew’s working space. It was also less reliable -at first- and not as manoeuvrable when it counted: during the torpedo launch. They nevertheless worked quite well in first-line service, specially in the Mediterranean, from 1940 to 1943. The “take it, or leave it” Barracuda replaced them.
A pair of utterly dedicated HMS Victorious flight deck handlers grab the wings of an Albacore after landing in extreme wind conditions, somewhere between Iceland and Scapa Flow, Nov. 1941.
Photo: IWM.
Aviation Rapture 