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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0441.PDF
FLIGHT, February 20th, 1941. A REAL FAIREY STORY (Continued) The Flycatcher (1923) was a deck-landingsingle-seater with Siddeley Jaguar of 350 h.p. There was also an amphibian version. The Freemantle (1924), shown below, was along-distance service type with 650 h.p. R.-R. Condor engine. Fuel was carried inthe floats. land undercarriage, but others had theski undercarriage for use in the Arctic regions, and yet another variation hada skid undercarriage on which was mounted a hydrovane. A further expansion of the worksbecame necessary to cope with the large orders, and a new factory, in-cluding a large erecting shop was built on the Harlihgton Aerodrome sitein 1918. A temporary shed housed the drawing office. Mr. W. Broad-bent, a director of the company, was works manager during this productionperiod and was thus responsible for the manufacture of the early Series IIImachines. Mr. C. F. Bray, who was then chargehand of the experimentalfitting shop, subsequently became chief of the experimental department.After the production of the Hamble Baby, Campania and III As at theworks in Clayton Road, this part of the factory was closed down and workwas transferred to the site in North Hyde Eoad. As a result of the experience gainedwith the Series III A landplanes and the previous seaplanes, a new type inthe III series was designed and became known as the III B. This was a sea-plane with 260 h.p. Sunbeam engine and weighed 4,892 lb. The wing load-lng was 8.6 lb./sq. ft. and the speed was 96 m.-p.h. The III C was The Ferret (19271 was the first all-metal fabric-covered Fairey aeroplane. « was a G.P. type, and was fitted withBristol Jupiter and Siddeley Jaguar engines. generally similar to the III A in itsdesign, although, of course, it differed in its undercarriage, which was of thethree-float type. In those days the power loadings of aircraft were highand, in order to get the seaplane off the water, it was customary to use flat-bottom floats. While these were ex- cellent for take-off, they were apt to bedamaged in landing when the waves hit the flat bottom. To reduce thelikelihood of this happening, the Fairey company designed a specialtype of float undercarriage with shock- absorbing attachment, which greatlyreduced the shocks imparted to the floats. This arrangement was success-ful, and the principle was retained in very many Fairey types subsequently.Following almost immediately on the III B came the III C. By thistime (1918) the Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII of 375 h.p. had become available andwas installed in this aircraft. The III C was employed for escort dutiesas well as for fighting during the Great War. A squadron was usedin the North Russian Expeditionary Force in 1919. For his services onthis Expedition Fit. Lt. L. M. Hilton, now technical director of the com-pany, was awarded the D.F.C. Large Flying Boats Towards the end of 1918 the FaireyCompany was entrusted by the ;AirMinistry with the task of designing and producing a flying boat. Two ofthese were laid down and were known as the Atalanta and the Titania respec-tively. They were four-engined boats, and were the-largest successful flyingboats in the world at that time. They weighed 32,000 lb. loaded and carrieda wing loading of 11.5 lb./sq. ft. The speed was 100 m.p.h., and thepower plant was four Rolls-Royce Condor engines of 600 h.p. each. The construction of these flyingboats was under the direction of Mr. A. C. Barlow and Mr. W. Walmsley.The former is now chief engineer of the company and the latter is worksmanager at Hayes. While the gradual evolution of theSeries III was proceeding, work was begun on what was to be the firstpost-war design of the Fairey Com- pany. This was for a two-seater shipplane amphibian which later became known as the Pintail. The engine wasa Napier Lion of 470 h.p. The speed was 125 m.p.h., which was high for aseaplane of that relatively low power. The Pintail incorporated several new
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