Swordfish: Long-Lived Aircraft

The British Fairey Swordfish bomber, remembered by history under its ironic nickname “Stringbag,” became one of the most striking paradoxes of World War 2. By 1939, this fabric-covered biplane with an open cockpit and fixed landing gear looked hopelessly obsolete. Yet it was precisely this slow, ungainly machine that went on to write some of the brightest chapters in naval warfare history.