About 800 Albacores were built, all or nearly all at Fairey's Hayes factory, compared with almost 2,400 Swordfish. Fairey produced fewer than 700 Swordfish, while Blackburn supplied the large majority of the older type. Pilots often regarded Blackburn-built Swordfish as the better examples to fly. That raises manufacturing quality as another possible reason the Fairey-designed and Fairey-built Albacore struggled in direct comparison with its predecessor, though the comparison remains a question rather than a proven single cause.
Notable Point · 1:01:15-1:02:59
Production numbers deepen the Swordfish comparison
About 800 Fairey-built Albacores faced comparison with nearly 2,400 Swordfish, most of them produced by Blackburn.