The Fleet Finch (Fleet Model 16) is a two-seat, tandem training biplane produced by Fleet Aircraft of Fort Erie, Ontario. There were a number of variants mainly based on engine variations. Over several years beginning in 1939, a total of 447 Finches were built, nearly all (431) of them for use as elementary trainers in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) during the Second World War.
Design and development
The Fleet 16B Finch II was a progressive development of the original Consolidated Fleet primary trainer (Fleet 10), manufacture of which commenced in
Canada by Fleet Aircraft in 1930. After a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) evaluation in 1938 recommended a number of changes, a total of 431 Finch trainers were built for the RCAF between 1939 and 1941.
The aircraft had conventional construction for the period with a welded steel-tube
fuselage having Warren truss structure for its sides; and composite metal, wood and fabric design features, with Frise ailerons, a flat-bottom airfoiled, variable incidence (trimmable) lifting two-piece tailplane; and similarly "lifting airfoil" on the fixed vertical stabilizer, cambered into an airfoil on its port side only, to offset the
P-factor of the propeller's swirling slipstream. The RCAF acquired the aircraft type as an elementary trainer. The Fleet 16 first entered RCAF service with tandem open
, but the severity of the Canadian winter necessitated the introduction of a sliding
Aircraft canopy at an early stage in the trainer's service career. The earlier Model 10's centre-hinged main landing gear radius rods were retained for the Model 16 series, as these centre-hinged units had replaced the "looped" left mainwheel's radius rod design that had been on the even-earlier Fleet Models 1, 2 & 7 biplanes from their own origins in November 1928.
Operational history
The Finch was a mainstay of the RCAF prior to and during the early part of the Second World War, flying at the Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS) in parallel with the better known de Havilland Tiger Moth, also produced in Canada. The earlier Fleet Model 7 (
Fleet Fawn) was also in use for primary training. During 1940, initial production problems were solved and timely deliveries were made to the RCAF, allowing the first training programs to start up. In the following year, the
Portugal Navy purchased ten Model 16Ds (ordered as 10Bs but changed to the higher powered variant) and later a further five 16Ds were delivered in 1942.
[Page and Cumming 1990, p. 72.]
A total of 606 Fleet Finches were produced as Model 16s, the majority for the RCAF. They were used as initial trainers in the BCATP at no fewer than 12 Elementary Flight Training Schools across Canada. Both the Fleet Finch and Tiger Moth were later replaced by the Fairchild PT-26 Cornell. The Finch was progressively phased out of service from October 1944 with the last of the Model 16s struck off strength from the RCAF inventory in 1947.
Variants
- Model 10
- Model was an improved Fleet 7 with a deeper rear fuselage from its nearly-level height dorsal turtledeck in side-view, a new two-piece horizontal tail/elevator and a better cockpit.
- Model 10A
- Model powered by Kinner K-5 five-cylinder radial engine
- Model 10B
- Model powered by Kinner B-5, five cylinder radial engine
- Model 10D
- Model powered by Kinner R-5, five cylinder radial engine
- Model 10-32D
- 32-foot-long span wing for high altitude operations in Mexico. Powered by Kinner R5, five cylinder radial engine
- Model 10E
- Model powered by Warner Super Scarab seven cylinder radial engine
- Model 10F
- Model powered by Warner Super Scarab seven cylinder radial engine
- Model 10G
- Model powered by Wright-Gypsy or Gypsy Major inline engine, built under license in Romania at IAR, SET & ICAR factories, also used in Portugal.
- Model 10H
- Model supercharged Menasco Pirate Inline
- Model 16F
- One prototype based on the Fleet Model 10; powered by a Warner Super Scarab seven cylinder radial engine
- Model 16R (Finch I)
- 27 built for RCAF; powered by Kinner R5-2, five cylinder radial engine
- Model 16B (Finch II)
- 404 built for the RCAF; powered by (variously noted as ) Kinner B5-R, five cylinder radial engine
- Model 16D
- 15 built for the Portuguese Navy; powered by Kinner B5-2, five cylinder radial engine
Operators
-
Royal Canadian Air Force
-
Portuguese Navy
-
Royal Romanian Air Force
-
Chinese Air Force
Survivors
- ;Model 16
-
registration CF-AAE, serial 243, at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta and painted as 1001.
- ;Model 16B
-
registration N666J, serial 350, one of two Finches based at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York State since at least 1970, with at least three different color schemes in its four decades-plus of flying in Old Rhinebeck's weekend airshows. Since suffering a crash landing in 2016, the aircraft is awaiting a rebuild.
[ Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's Fleet Finch page , Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome,, Retrieved: 21 December 2012.]
-
registration CF-GER, serial 399, at the Guelph Airport in Ontario and painted as 4488.
[ Canadian Civil Aircraft Register, Retrieved: 22 September 2016][ Tiger Boys:CF-GER , Retrieved 22 September 2016]
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registration unknown, serial 542, at the Canadian Museum of Flight in British Columbia and painted as 4725.
[ Canadian Museum of Flight:Fleet 16B Finch Mk II, Retrieved 22 September 2016]
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registration ZK-AGC, serial 668, airworthy with a private owner at Omaka Aerodrome in New Zealand. For sale as of November 2020.
- ;Model 16R
Aircraft on display
- ;Model 16B
-
registration C-GQWE, serial 567, at the RCAF No.6 Dunnville Museum in Ontario and painted as 4708.
[ Canadian Civil Aircraft Register, Retrieved: 22 September 2016.][ RCAF No. 6 Dunnville Museum: C-GQWE, Retrieved 22 September 2016]
-
registration C-FFUI, serial 623, at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Ontario and painted as 4738.
[ Canadian Civil Aircraft Register, Retrieved: 22 September 2016]
-
serial 408 registration CF-SUX, at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ontario and painted as 4510.
[ Canadian Aviation and Space Museum:Fleet 16B Finch Mk II , Retrieved 27 September 2016]
-
Model 10G No. 351 Built by ICAR - Întreprinderea de Construcţii Aeronautice Româneşti , at the Muzeului Militar Național „Regele Ferdinand I” in Bucharest, Romania and painted as 51.[10]
Specifications (Finch II)
See also
Notes
Bibliography
-
Holmes, Tony. Jane's Vintage Aircraft Recognition Guide. London: Harper Collins, 2005. .
-
Molson, Ken M. and Harold A. Taylor. Canadian Aircraft Since 1909. Stittsville, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 1982. .
-
Page, Ron D. and William Cumming, . Fleet: The Flying Years. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1990. .
External links
