Fairey Firefly - Survivors

Survivors

There are approximately 24 Fairey Fireflies surviving worldwide, including three airworthy examples and at least one other being restored to flying condition. The Fleet Air Arm Museum possesses two Fireflies, the latest acquisition arriving in 2000 from the Imperial War Museum Duxford. Firefly WB271 was destroyed in July 2003 during an aerobatic air display at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire - Europe's largest display of vintage warplanes. There are three airworthy Fireflies at present:

• AS 6 WH632, which was damaged in a crash and has since been restored to flying condition (painted as an RCN Firefly AS 5), is at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (Canada)
• AS 6 WD826 at the Royal Australian Navy Historic Flight, NAS Nowra NSW (Australia)
• AS 6 WB518, another former RAN machine, now in the USA. (Damaged at the Wings Over Gillespie Airshow in June 2012, airworthiness currently unknown)

WB518 was one of the first 10 Mk 6s built, but retained the earlier Mk 5 fuselage. It was originally delivered to the Royal Australian Navy's 817 Squadron and then served in 816 Squadron before being retired and ending up as a memorial on a pole in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia. WB518 was then purchased by American Eddie Kurdziel, a Northwest Airlines captain and former U.S. Navy pilot. WD518 was extensively restored and made its first public appearance at Oshkosh in 2002. Restoration of WD518 used parts salvaged from WD828 which was written off after a crash into a cabbage field in Camden, New South Wales in 1987.

Other survivors include - in Australia:

• AS 6 WD827 which was once owned by the Australian Air League, Blacktown, New South Wales, and is now on display in the Australian National Aviation Museum, Melbourne, Victoria
• AS 6 WD828 is displayed on a pole outside the Returned Services Leagues Club in Griffith, Australia. It has been re-painted as WB518 which was the original aircraft displayed in Griffith but is now the flying example owned by Captain Kurdziel. The swap was made in 1991
• AS 6 WJ109 is on display at Australia's Museum of Flight, Nowra, NSW
• AS 6 WD833, another ex-Australian Flying, is owned by Henry "Butch" Schroeder who moved the aircraft to Danville, Illinois, USA for restoration. The present whereabouts of this aircraft are unclear.

The Royal Thai Air Force Museum in Bangkok, Thailand has a Firefly Mk I on display.

A sole remaining Firefly of the 10 acquired by India is displayed at the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa.

An ex-Swedish Firefly has recently (October 2011) appeared in a hangar at the IWM Duxford, Cambridge. It is believed to be a former target tug brought to the UK for restoration to flying condition.

As well as the Canadian Warplane Heritage's ex-Australian Firefly, two other Fireflies are known to exist in Canada: one is at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa and another is being restored at the Shearwater Aviation Museum at Eastern Passage (near Dartmouth), Nova Scotia. Both are Mk I models that served in the Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1954, after which they were sold to the Ethiopian Air Force. Following their discovery in the Ethiopian desert in 1993, they were repatriated to Canada.