The Fulmar and Firefly followed separate paths from P.4/34

The Fulmar and Firefly both trace back to the Fairey P.4/34 concept, but the Firefly did not evolve directly from the Fulmar. Once the Fulmar entered production, the absence of a continuing development team forced Fairey to return to the underlying design problem for the later aircraft. A two-seat naval fighter made sense because it needed range, navigation and reconnaissance equipment, and an observer for difficult all-weather operations. Their common starting point produced two separate development paths rather than a continuous series of improved Fulmar marks.