Canadian Warplanes 4: Fleet Fort
Fleet Fort
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3390421)
Fleet Fort, RCAF (Serial No. 3562), 25 Oct 1941.
The Fleet Model 60K Fort was the only aircraft designed and built by Canadians during the Second World War and was also the first all-metal monoplane built by Fleet Aircraft of Canada at Fort Erie, Ontario. It was intended to be an intermediate trainer employed for pilot training between the de Havilland Tiger Moth primary trainer and the North American Harvard advanced trainer. Although it served with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the Fort was redundant and was used to train wireless (radio) operators and had a relatively short operational career.
Pilot trainees found the Fort relatively easy to master, thereby making it unsuitable for transition to combat aircraft such as the Hawker Hurricane. The Forts were therefore used to train wireless operators at No. 2 Wireless School, Calgary and No. 3 Wireless School, Winnipeg.
Two models were built, one having a 250 hp (190 kW) Jacobs engine and the other having a 330 hp (250 kW) Jacobs. The more powerful engine gave the revised Fort a top speed of 193 mph (311 km/h) and the cruising speed 163 mph (262 km/h). It then climbed at 1,650 feet (500 m) per minute and had a range of 610 miles (980 km). Loaded weight was slightly increased to 2,900 pounds (1,300 kg). The last Forts saw active service in 1944 and they were phased out of use by 1945; the last Model 60K was retired in 1946. (Wikipedia)
Fleet 60K Fort (101), (Serial Nos. 3540, 3561-3660).
(J. Hazard Photo)
Fleet 60K Fort. Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon, Manitoba.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3583644)
Fleet 60K Fort, 16 May 1940.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3388532)
Fleet 60K Fort, RCAF (Serial No. 3562), cockpit, 25 Oct 1941.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3204722)
Fleet 60K Fort, RCAF (Serial No. 3562), ca 1942.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3241751)
Fleet 60K Fort, 3562, RCAF Station Rockcliffe, Ontario, c1942.
(Author Photo)
Fleet 60K Fort (Serial No. 3540), (600), C-FORT.
(Author Photo)
Fleet 60K Fort (Serial No. 3540), (600), C-FORT.
The Fleet 60K Fort was designed by Fleet Aircraft in Fort Erie, Ontario in 1939 and its first flight took place there on March 21 1940. RCAF evaluation at the Central Flying School, Trenton, Ontario showed it to be suitable as an intermediate trainer and so the RCAF placed an order for 200 Model 60Ks. The name Fort was selected for it.
The first production aircraft flew in May 1941 and once in service some problems emerged. Flying characteristics were good overall, but an unskilled pilot could get into trouble during certain manoeuvres. In late 1941, the RCAF began to question the concept of the intermediate trainer and soon it was deemed to be unnecessary. With its elimination, the RCAF reduced the order to 100 Forts and then had to decide what to do with them.
It chose to use the Fort as wireless operator trainer, with the rear cockpit filled with radio equipment. Conversion was carried out by early 1942 and the remodeled aircraft were sent to Wireless Training Schools in Calgary and Winnipeg. The schools did not rate the Fort very highly, but continued to use them to train thousands of wireless operators, between 1942 and 1944.
By early 1944 the Fleet Fort was found to obsolete for wireless operator training and the aircraft was gradually phased out - the last being retired from the Calgary Wireless School in July 1944. Once retired, the RCAF had no further use for them and most were sold off, even before the end of the war.
Canadian Warplane Heritage Musuem's Fleet Fort was part of the original aircraft that first flew in 1940 and was operated by the National Research Council’s Aircraft Testing Deptartment in Ottawa. In 1942, it was assigned to No. 2 Wireless School in Calgary, where it was flown until mid 1944. The Museum acquired the fuselage, an engine and one wing of this rare aircraft in 1979. A group of retired Fleet employees and friends started work on restoring it in 1980. After 13 years, the Fort returned to the air in 1993. It is the only airworthy example of this type in existence. (Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum)
(Author Photo)
Fleet 60K Fort (Serial No. 3643), partial restoration.
(Author Photo)
Fleet 60K Fort (Serial No. 3643), partial restoration.
