Fairey Barracuda DP872. Restoration of the World's only WW2 Fairey Barracuda torpedo bomber.
Over 2500 Barracuda aircraft were delivered to the Fleet Air Arm, more than any other type ordered by the Royal Navy to date. Unlike other more iconic aircraft of its era none were retained for posterity and no complete examples exist today.
Since the early 1970s the Fleet Air Arm Museum has been collecting Barracuda components from a wide variety of sources throughout the British Isles, with the long term aim of rebuilding a Barracuda.
Nose, centre section and wing components from Barracuda DP872 were the first to be collected and have since formed the basis of the rebuild. Says Dave Morris Curator of Aircraft "some restoration work on the nose section was started in the 1990s, however, the enormity of the task coupled with lack of funds meant no further significant progress was made until now".