Fairchild Razorback

  • The only Razorback in existence

    Fairchild Razorback got its name due to the fact that it had what was known as a three longeron fuselage. This gave it a triangular cross-section as compared with the later FC-2 models such as our FC-2W2, CF-AKT, which incorporated the stronger four longeron construction.

    Our aircraft, G-CYWU, was an RCAF machine that was recovered after languishing for 80 years at Artillery Lake in the Northwest Territories. When restored, G-CYWU will be the only razorback in existence.

    The wreckage includes pieces of the wooden wings as well as the metal fittings.  The surviving wood spar fragments have been enormously helpful in guiding the reconstruction.

    G-CYWU arrived at the Museum in 2010. The fuselage frame is on display to give visitors an idea of what our restorations start with.

    2010 Update

    The remains of the wing spars were brought into the woodwork shop and jigs for construction of the spars were built. Drawings, tools and materials were assembled for construction of the wing spars.

    2011 Update

    The metal fuselage was cleaned and straightened while work is well underway recreating a set of wings. The wing project began with crafting the leading edge spars.  Our woodwork crew has built three of the four wing spars. After the fourth and final spar is completed, work will commence on the wing ribs.  The fuselage frame is being worked on by our welders as a considerable amount of the frame tubing must be replaced. This will be a long term restoration project, building some forty wood ribs will probably occupy a year or more. One of the challenges with the work on this aircraft is the shortage of accurate Fairchild drawings. Much of the work is being carried out with the aid of old photographs.