In 1916, the Royal Navy revised the HMS Campania to include a 200 foot flight deck to which a purpose-built naval aircraft for patrol and reconnaissance was ordered. This fell to the Fairey concern which was founded in 1915 and, to this point, had been largely involved in contract production of various aircraft types. Fairey responded with the F.16 prototype which was a two-seat, single-engine biplane aircraft powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle IV engine of 250 horsepower. Construction was traditional with a strong wood understructure with canvas skin covering. The undercarriage was made up of a pair of floatplanes for water take-off and landings but a jettisonable wheeled dolly was devised to be used for deck take-offs from equipped ships. Defense was via a 7.7mm Lewis machine gun in a flexible ring mount in the rear cockpit while a bomb load of up to 6 x 116lb bombs could be carried. The F.16 was followed by the F.17 prototype with its Rolls-Royce Eagle V engine of 275 horsepower. These two aircraft were utilized in limited operational service prior to the type seeing acceptance with the Royal Navy. The definitive production mark, therefore, became the F.22 with its Sunbeam Maori II engine of 260 horsepower. 170 of the type were on order and production would be split between Fairey, Barclay Curie and Company and Frederick Sage and Company/Sunbeam Motor Car Company.
As the HMS Campania was completed, she received her new Fairey aircraft to which the name of "Campania" became associated with the type. From then on, the "Fairey Campania" went on to stock the HMS Nairana and HMS Pegasus in turn (though the HMS Campania was the only vessel of the three to be finished with a flight deck - the others left to operate their aircraft by winch as normal). The Royal Air Force also stocked the aircraft type through No. 240, 241 and 253 Squadrons.
Fairey Campanias were utilized as spotting aircraft throughout the rest of the war which ended in November of 1918 with the Armistice. In the years following, the British used the Fairey Campania to identify naval mines along the English coast while its service career was rather nondescript. Some British Fairey Campanias also served in the war against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution though, by August of 1919, the aircraft had met its technological end and was formally retired from service. The HMS Campania herself was lost in November of 1918 to a storm in the Fifth of Forth, bringing an end to her career as well.
Despite the 170 Fairey Campanias on order, only 62 were completed in all and 42 of these were available at the time of the Armistice.
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