Blackburn Firebrand

Firebrand
Centaurus IX-powered Firebrand T.F. Mk IV
General information
Type	Strike fighter
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Blackburn Aircraft
Primary user	Royal Navy
Number built	220 + 3 prototypes[1]
History
Manufactured	1942–47
Introduction date	1945
First flight	27 February 1942
Retired	1953
Variants	Blackburn Firecrest

The Blackburn Firebrand was a British single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and the priority allocation by the Ministry of Aircraft Production of Napier Sabre engines to the Hawker Typhoon caused it to be redesigned with an alternate engine as a strike fighter to take advantage of its load-carrying capability. Development was slow and the first production aircraft was not delivered until after the end of the war. Only a few hundred were built before it was withdrawn from front-line service in 1953.