the intention was to use the gannet as a stop-gap measure prior to the acquisition of a new, purpose built system intended to be used on the planned new generation of aircraft carriers. as a consequence, it was intended to undertake as little in the way of modification as possible – the an/aps-20 radar from the skyraider would be mounted in a radome under the fuselage of an ordinary gannet as.1, with the associated electronics and space for two operators inside. however, the size of the radome meant that the existing airframe was too close to the ground to accommodate the radar, and so a significant modification to the fuselage was required. this involved removing the observer's cockpits and creating a new cabin within the fuselage; this was accessed via a pair of hatches next to the trailing edge of the wing, which also meant that the exhausts had to be moved from this position to the leading edge; increasing the total area of the vertical stabiliser to compensate for the instability caused by the radome; and extending the length of the undercarriage to increase the clearance for the radome, which consequently increased the aircraft's overall height by , and gave the aircraft a more level stance than the anti-submarine version. such were the extensive modifications required that, in december 1954, it was suggested that the aew version be renamed as the fairey albatross, as it was to all intents and purposes a completely different aircraft from its asw predecessor. as it was, by the time the gannet aew was entering service, the asw version was in the process of being replaced, avoiding any potential confusion.