Barracuda: Big fish from Fairey

[lazarus]

Rob Richardson's latest, the much maligned Barracuda. Many hated it, those who mastered it's quirks loved it. Knew a few old RCN grey beards out of Calgary who flew Barracuda's post-war who positively adored it.

53822


http://www.robertjamesrichardson.co.uk/

[Roger]

Thanks for the hu Lazarus!

[Cees Donker]

Thank you for the HU!

:wavey:

Cees

[Roger]

It's a beaut and the sad thing is, I bet DaveB would have loved this...

https://images.imgbox.com/d5/0a/KwZ1rUvz_o.jpg (http://imgbox.com/KwZ1rUvz)

https://images.imgbox.com/e0/4c/wwCCQF7s_o.jpg (http://imgbox.com/wwCCQF7s)

https://images.imgbox.com/fa/7f/EA8G4ji8_o.jpg (http://imgbox.com/EA8G4ji8)

https://images.imgbox.com/6c/30/gd9Ld4CP_o.jpg (http://imgbox.com/gd9Ld4CP)

[Roger]

Oh and I love the sound pack too!:jump:

[Bjoern]

Must...not...comment...on...aircraft...looks.

[WarHorse47]

Yes, beautiful.

How much weight do you add for the bomb racks?? Anybody know??

[DaveWG]

Thanks for the HU. :encouragement:
Lovely job Rob. :applause:

[DaveWG]

Yes, beautiful.

How much weight do you add for the bomb racks?? Anybody know??

It's in the cfg:


station_load.0 = 0, 0.0, 10.48, 0.5, "500lb_bomb1" // (500)
station_load.1 = 0, 0.0, 8.28, 0.3, "500lb_bomb2" // (500)
station_load.2 = 0, 0.0, -8.28, 0.3, "500lb_bomb3" // (500)
station_load.3 = 0, 0.0, -10.48, 0.5, "500lb_bomb4" // (500)
station_load.5 = 0, 0.0, 9.38, 1.0, "bombrack" // (20)
station_load.6 = 0, 0.0, -9.38, 1.0, "bombrack_R" // (20)
station_load.4 = 1500, 0, 0 , -3.55, "torpedo1" // (1500)
station_load.7 = 0, 0, 0 , -3.51, "AN-Mk1" // (1600)

[Roger]

Must...not...comment...on...aircraft...looks.

Yes it's ugly... in a really beautiful way:engel016:

[Cees Donker]

It's a beaut and the sad thing is, I bet DaveB would have loved this...





That's what I was thinking too.....:sorrow: I really miss him......

Cees

[Ferry_vO]

Great job Rob! :applause: :encouragement:

[hairyspin]

Looks like a later mark, the originals had the exhaust recessed in the nose fairing IIRC - an odd idea. Good to see Rob hasn't lost his touch with the move to Blender.

[robcarrich]

Looks like a later mark, the originals had the exhaust recessed in the nose fairing IIRC - an odd idea. Good to see Rob hasn't lost his touch with the move to Blender.
Your quite right Tom.
The early models had a recessed exhaust but the main production batch of Mkll's had the Spitfire type.
A number of alternative setups were tried.


RobR

[Pips]

Fantastic model, well done. :applause:

But it is an awful and most ungainly looking aeroplane. :dizzy: Fairey designers had to be amongst the worst in the world. They really didn't design a pleasant looking aeroplane until the Fairey Firefly. :)

Really interesting insight into flying the Barracuda here:
http://www.key.aero/view_article.asp?ID=5969&thisSection=historic

[magoo]

If asked to describe the Fairey Barracuda, I would have said it looked,"antediluvian..."

[strykerpsg]

Beautiful plane! I admittedly never heard of this plane till I bought the latest DLC (Burma Road) for Order Of Battle WWII and the Barracuda features prominently as the British close air support bird during that conflict. Interesting history and love seeing developers making the less famous or more obscure warbirds. Thank you Richard.

[SPman]

They really didn't design a pleasant looking aeroplane until the Fairey Firefly. :)

Fairey Fox, Fairey Phantome.....

[Switchblade408]

A most wonderful addition to the British WWII virtual aircraft collection!

[wombat666]

The designers at Fairy (and all manufacturers who designed aircraft for the Royal Navy) were hampered by a multitude of obsolete Admiralty 'requirements'.
Technically (IIRC) the Fleet Air Arm had a deal of Royal Air Force oversight but they were rather busy in other areas.
The 'Barra' suffered from the same strictures as those that gave us 'unfortunate' designs such as the Short Sturgeon, Blackburn's appalling Firebrand and the Westland Wyvern, to name a few.
Nice rendition of the Barracuda Rob.
:encouragement:

[greenie]

Well, as they say ....
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder !

[dhasdell]

What a lovely surprise. Thanks Rob. As the American naval aviator is reputed to have said on first seeing a Barracuda: "Jeez, you Limeys will be building airplanes next."


It's a beaut and the sad thing is, I bet DaveB would have loved this...
Wouldn't he just.

As for Fairey, the Fox and Phantome weren't bad, in a Hartish way, and there were many uglier than the Fulmar. The Spearfish, though . . .

[Flyboy208]

What a treat Rob. Another fine addition to my fleet of WWII British aircraft. Thank you so very much for your hard work ! Mike :applause:

[mrogers]

The Barracuda wasn't a pretty plane but was built for the purpose of being a carrier aircraft!:biggrin-new:

[TARPSBird]

Beautiful airplane and sound package. I can see it's flying well for all of you and it was for me for a while... but now I'm getting a "fatal error" prompt right at the Select Aircraft screen. Notice the textures haven't even appeared on the plane yet and I have to restart or quit. This is in my original FSX install, I haven't tried it yet on my Steam install. Anybody get the same error?

[dhasdell]

No, but I have had a black screen.

Edited: But a later load worked fine.

[MDIvey]

Thanks Rob for doing an FSX version of this. It looks superb... Only problem is I have no sounds... only a sound cfg file no wav files. I take it from this the sounds needs sourcing from elsewhere but I couldn't find a readme to tell me where to find them.

Matt

[dvj]

Thanks Rob for doing an FSX version of this. It looks superb... Only problem is I have no sounds... only a sound cfg file no wav files. I take it from this the sounds needs sourcing from elsewhere but I couldn't find a readme to tell me where to find them.

Matt

I have the same problem (FSX). Great looking aircraft and modeling. Well done sir!

- d

[Spook48]

That dorsal-gunner position must have been a very chill spot to enjoy a flight .

[Roger]

I have the same problem (FSX). Great looking aircraft and modeling. Well done sir!

- d

My download was complete with a sound folder full of .wav files.

[robcarrich]

Just re-download, it is now sorted.
Button pushing error my end.

RobR

[Penz]

Thank you very much for another rockin' aircraft Rob! :applause:

[warchild]

Fly's beautifully for what it is. I cant help but think Fairey got a size complex after America built the P-61.. This thing is HUGE ( and amazingly slow ). Beautiful Job Rob :).. Thank you ..
Pam

[lazarus]

No problems, loaded up an went fine. Many point and laugh at the 'cuda, I feel it has a heraldic, heroic ugliness; like Sir Winston.
Well done, Rob!

[henrystreet]

Yikes....from Wikipedia

"During the earlier part of its service life, the Barracuda suffered a fairly high rate of unexplained fatal crashes, often involving experienced pilots (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviator).[8] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Barracuda#cite_note-Popham_SeaFlight_p163-8)[9] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Barracuda#cite_note-Kilbracken_Stringbag.2Cp196-9) In 1945 this was traced to small leaks developing in the hydraulic system. The most common point for the leak was at the point of entry to the pilot's pressure gauge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_gauge) and was situated such that the resulting spray went straight into the pilot's face. The chosen hydraulic fluid contained ether (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethyl_ether) and as the aircraft rarely were equipped with oxygen masks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_mask) (and few aircrew wore them below 10,000 ft/3,000 m anyway) the pilot quickly became unconscious leading to a crash.[10] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Barracuda#cite_note-Kilbracken_p203-10) An Admiralty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty) order issued at the end of May 1945 required all examples of the type to be fitted with oxygen as soon as possible, and for pilots to use the system at all times."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Barracuda

[Roger]

If you redownload Rob's Barracuda you will have a Mk.III as well as the Mk.II. The MkIII has centimetric radar and so the wing tip Yagi antennae have gone.

[TARPSBird]

Beautiful airplane and sound package. I can see it's flying well for all of you and it was for me for a while... but now I'm getting a "fatal error" prompt right at the Select Aircraft screen. Notice the textures haven't even appeared on the plane yet and I have to restart or quit.

Update: My older system apparently can't handle 4096x4096 textures. Reduced the main textures and their bump maps to 2048x2048 and now the plane loads and flies with no fatal errors. :encouragement: It helps to do troubleshooting when you're not tired, LOL. I really like those sounds.

[MDIvey]

Thanks Rob. Lovely job.

Matt

[blanston12]

Gave her a try in P3Dv4 last night and she looks great and flew quite well.

A bit too well maybe, she seemed very aerobatic, being able to flip and barrol roll her easily. I also downloaded the new Sea Hawk and the Barracuda seemed more maneuverable that it. Is she supposed to be like that?

I did not do a full test but it also seemed her fuel consumption was quite high, my five minute test flight around Jersey used up 15% of fuel.

[Desert Rat]

( and amazingly slow )

apparently a good thing for a WWII torpedo bomber. The Swordfish survival rate was IIRC attributed to this slowness, the AA guns on the German ships were not ranged for aircraft travelling so sedately, lol.

[nio]

For those who may be interested in reading about some of the Barracuda's operational exploits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tungsten

21 Airborne Barracudas.

Imagine the sound!

best

nio

[gman5250]

This is really a wonderful airplane. TY to Mr. Richardson for all of your time and craftsmanship. :very_drunk:

I thought a modest video tribute might be appropriate.

Enjoy...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LZKDdo8vK0

[robcarrich]

This is really a wonderful airplane. TY to Mr. Richardson for all of your time and craftsmanship. :very_drunk:

That's a great video, thanks very much.
Its always nice to get positive feedback.

RobR

[IanHenry]

Wow this is a surprise and a treat, many thanks for all your hard work Rob.



Regards,
Ian

[falcon409]

Must...not...comment...on...aircraft...looks.
:biggrin-new::biggrin-new::biggrin-new:. . . . . .same. . .. .here!

[JensOle]

I have been away for some days and the release of the Barracuda was very welcome news to come home to! Thank you so much Rob!
thanks for the varied loadout options!

Any chance for a paintkit?

[MDIvey]

A couple of shots I took while enjoying taking this for a spin
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=53934&stc=1

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=53935&stc=1

Matt

[peterwatkins2]

I could not resist this post-war example of HMS Illustrious Ships Flight! Uploaded to FlightSim.com. More to follow but not for another week as I am on vacation for 7 days from tomorrow.
https://i.imgur.com/Sk4rdEU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Q0ri79D.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oa4IteE.jpg

:ernaehrung004: Peter

[dhasdell]

Very nice, Peter, as always. Thank you.

[peterwatkins2]

OK Guys, have uploaded another 7 paints to FlightSim.com, available now.

Cheers, Peter W
https://i.imgur.com/HkjI9Gc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/cJCWO6G.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/L8ibXG2.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jONMJMT.jpg

[peterwatkins2]

The other 3!
:ernaehrung004:
https://i.imgur.com/p0Ku1PA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DBwsYJK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Sp2wIXp.jpg

[Roger]

Many thanks Peter! Some great repaints.

[Bradburger]

Lovely work Peter.

Cheers

Paul

[hairyspin]

Y'know, I had wondered some years ago where the Wyvern got those 'orrible-looking flaps from. Now I know – the Barracuda. Shudders.