A Decent Plane With A Deadly Problem: Fairey Barracuda

In this video we talk about the Fairey Barracuda, a World War 2-era British torpedo bomber and dive bomber. We first talk about the naming conventions of the American and British militaries, and how planes like the Fairey Barracuda get their names. We then talk about the state of British torpedo bombers early in WW2, with the Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore being their two most prominent. We look at the design competition to replace those planes, and the two designs that emerged from it, the Barracuda and the Supermarine 322 "Dumbo".
We then look at the delayed testing and production of both of these planes, due to issues with weight, power, and technology. We then look at the performance of the Barracuda when it finally arrived to combat in 1943 and how it delivered decent production, with one major positive exception in a mission against the German Battleship Tirpitz. We then look at it's more lackluster performance in the Pacific, and we end by looking at a mysterious problem that plagued the Barracuda for most of the war, where pilots were being knocked unconscious and crashing.