Fairey III S1492 at Catfoss airfield.
On 1st July 1932 a visiting Fairey III S1492 of 450 Flight, Fleet Air Arm was taxying at Catfoss airfield when it collided with a parked 101 Squadron Sidestrand J9770. 450 Flight was attached to HMS Courageous but the pilot appears to have been an RAF pilot serving with the Fleet Air Arm.
Pilot - P/O N E Morrison.
The pilot was probably P/O Norman Eric Morrison RAF (26186), he was later awarded the Air Force Cross in October 1940.
Fairey IIIF S1492 was built to contract 34792/30 by the Fairey Aviation Co. Ltd. at Hayes. It was delivered to 450 Flight at Gosport for service on HMS Courageous on 6th November 1930 and initially was coded "-56" but later re-coded "-743". As a result of a forced landing near Hawnby on 27th August 1931 it was possibly repaired on site and flown out but nothing has yet been found to state this. It was then damaged again in a ground accident on 1st July 1932 when it struck parked Sidestrand J9770 whilst taxying at Catfoss. It was repaired on site at Catfoss and returned to 450 Flight. On 3rd April 1933 450 Flight became 820 Squadron on HMS Courageous and the aircraft was re-coded "-749". On 30th January 1934 it was flown to Fairey Aviation Ltd. at Hamble when, on 1st September 1934 reconditioning commenced. On 15th Septmber 1934 it was flown to 2 ASU at Cardington where it was stored until 24th June 1935 when it was transferred to ‘C’ Flight of the School of Naval Co-operation at Lee on Solent. It transferred to "D" Flight of the same unit on 12th March 1936 but on 31st August 1936 the undercarriage hit a telegraph pole on landing at Lee on Solent and aircraft tipped on it’s nose. The crew survived but were all injured; Sgt.C.L.Gould and Lt.G.J.Cardew (slightly injured) and Lt.R.Dyer RN (seriously injured). The damage was assessedand it does not appear to have been repaired so must have been struck off charge.