After its withdrawal from service during the 1950s, no intact examples of the Barracuda were preserved despite its once-large numbers, although the Fleet Air Arm Museum has ambitions to assemble a full reproduction.

In 1937 the British Air Ministry issued Specification S.24/37, which sought a monoplane torpedo bomber to satisfy Operational Requirement OR.35.

Originally fitted with a conventional tail, flight tests suggested that stability would be improved by mounting the elevator higher, similar to a T-tail, an arrangement on the second prototype.

[1] For carrier stowage the wings folded back horizontally at the roots; the small vertical protrusions on the upper wingtips held hooks that attached to the tailplane.

[citation needed] The Barracuda had originally been intended to be powered by the Rolls-Royce Exe X block, sleeve valve engine, but production of this powerplant was beset with difficulties and eventually abandoned, which in turn delayed the prototype's trials.

[1][5] It was decided to adopt the lower-powered 12-cylinder V-type Rolls-Royce Merlin Mark 30 engine [1,260 hp (940 kW)] to drive a three-bladed de Havilland propeller and the prototypes eventually flew with this configuration.

[5] Carrier landing the Barracuda was relatively straightforward due to a combination of the powerful flaps/airbrakes fitted to the aircraft and good visibility from the cockpit.

Retracting the air-brakes at high speeds while simultaneously applying rudder would cause a sudden change in trim, which could throw the aircraft into an inverted dive.

[7][6] Incidents of this occurrence proved fatal on at least five occasions during practice torpedo runs; once the problem was identified, appropriate pilot instructions were issued prior to the aircraft entering carrier service.

[7] The definitive version of the aircraft was the Barracuda Mk II which had the more powerful 1,640 hp (1,220 kW) Merlin 32 driving a four-bladed propeller.

[3] A total of 1,688 Mk IIs were manufactured by several companies, including Fairey (at Stockport and Ringway) (675), Blackburn Aircraft (700), Boulton Paul (300), and Westland (13).

[citation needed] The next and final variant was the Barracuda Mk V, in which the Merlin was replaced with the larger Rolls-Royce Griffon engine.

[citation needed] Early Merlin 30-powered Barracuda Mk 1s were deemed to be underpowered and suffered from a poor rate of climb but once airborne the type proved relatively easy to fly.

[12] During the earlier part of its service life the Barracuda suffered a fairly high rate of unexplained fatal crashes, often involving experienced pilots.

The hydraulic fluid contained ether and as the aircraft were only rarely equipped with oxygen masks and few aircrew wore them below 10,000 ft (3,000 m) anyway, the pilot quickly became unconscious during such a leak, inevitably leading to a crash.

[15] At the end of May 1945 an Admiralty order was issued that required all examples of the type to be fitted with oxygen as soon as possible and for pilots to use the system at all times.

While intended to principally function as a torpedo bomber, by the time the Barracuda arrived in quantity relatively little Axis-aligned shipping remained, so it was instead largely used as a dive-bomber.

[21] As the only British naval aircraft in service stressed for dive bombing following the retirement of the Blackburn Skua[16] the Barracuda participated in Operation Tungsten, an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz while it was moored in Kåfjord, Alta, Norway.

[1][5] On 3 April 1944, Strike Leader Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner led two Naval Air Wings with a total of 42 aircraft dispatched from British carriers HMS Victorious and Furious scored 14 direct hits on Tirpitz using a combination of 1,600 lb (730 kg) and 500 lb (230 kg) bombs for the loss of one bomber.

[22][17] This attack damaged Tirpitz, killing 122 of her crew and injuring 316, as well as disabling the ship for over two months during the critical period leading up to the Normandy invasion.

[32] A number of Barracudas participated in trial flights, during which several innovations were tested, including RATOG rockets for boosting takeoff performance (which ended up being regularly used when operating off escort carriers at high weights),[33] and a braking propeller, which slowed the aircraft by reversing the blade pitch.

[38][39] Since the early 1970s, the Fleet Air Arm Museum has been collecting Barracuda components from a wide variety of sources throughout the British Isles to rebuild one.