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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1212.PDF
528 FLIGHT "Flight" photograph A fighter squadron of the Belgian Air Force equipped with Fairey Fireflies. "Flight" photograph Fox IIM two-seater light bombers on a Belgian airfield. iSSvfS'y/T^SIS^K^r^: Meteor 8s assembled at Gosselies from Gloster and Fokker components. tion of Fantomes for further entry, in due course, in the competi tion. The delay in some degree coincided with a change in the specification; but in the interim the Russians had learned that Faireys had produced an attractive fighter and had ordered two examples These were built in Belgium (where, incidentally, the type was known as the Feroce) and were crated for shipment to Russia via Antwerp. The third machine was also built in Belgium and delivered to England for Air Ministry trials at Martlesham Heath. At this date, however, Air Staff opinion favoured the eight-machine-gun formula and no British order for the Fantome was forthcoming. Last of the piston-engined fighters to be built by Avions Fairey were the first two of a batch of 80 Hawker Hurricanes ordered for the Belgian Air Force. They differed from the con temporary British eight-gun type in being armed with four of the hard-hitting 12.7 mm F.N.-Brownings, and it is regrettable that no pictures of this little-known Hurricane variant have survived. When war broke out on May 10th, 1940, no fewer than 245 military aircraft had been completed at Gosselies. Even in the early days of Avions Fairey Mr. Tips was not too preoccupied with military commitments to preclude his designing and building, during 1934, the prototype Tipsy S, capable of a speed of nearly 90 m.p.h. on the 18 h.p. of a 600 c.c. Douglas flat- twin engine. This fascinating little single-seater was something of a milestone in ultra-light-aircraft development and was followed, during the years 1936-38, by a production-series of nineteen S.2S with various engines. Companion types were the Tipsy B two- seater, of which five were turned out during 1936-37, and the Be (cabin) development. Production of the Walter Mikron-engined Be type totalled fourteen aircraft between 1933 and 1937. The last of the pre-war Tipsys was the Model M two-seater trainer, with Gipsy Major engine— the prototype of the Fairey Primer, which made a name for itself in this country three or four years ago, and was the subject of an "In the Air'^evaluation by the Editor in Flight of February 12th, 1948. Flashback to 190s Aircraft design was no novelty to" Mr. Tips, for as far"back as 1908, in association with his brother, he had planned and built a biplane with twin, shaft-driven, reversible-pitch metal airscrews and a tricycle undercarriage. The engine was a 50 h.p. Gnome, for which the Tips brothers secured an agency covering Belgium and Holland. Later they developed a 35 h.p. "valveless" rotary of their own design, the crankcase and cylinders of which were a single casting. A rotary mixture-distributor fed ports in the detachable cylinder-heads. Larger models of 50 h.p. and 80 h.p. were also constructed. Development of these engaging projects was arrested by the outbreak of the Kaiser's war. whereupon Mr. Tips joined the Belgian Army. After escaping from enemy occupied territory he made his way to England in 1915 and was given charge of the erecting department of the Fairey Aviation Company at Hamble. Thus began a 37-year-old association with the English company, during which he made valuable technical contributions and partici pated in numerous test flights of prototype aircraft with Capt. Norman MacMillan and other well-remembered pilots. As already recorded, he helped in the establishment of the AVIONS FAIREY COMES OF AGE... fewer than 178 Foxes were completed and delivered during the years 1933-39. The peak year was 1935, with a total of 79 Foxes completed. All production Fireflies were powered with the Roll-Royce Kestrel IIS engine, but a number of Foxes were fitted with the 860 h.p. Hispano Suiza 12Y, and so outstanding was the perform ance of this Hispano-Fox that during 1936 the Belgian company evolved a single-seater version known as the Fox VII, Mono Fox, or—in the Belgian language— Kangourou. Six guns (four in the upper wings and two in the fuselage) were fitted to this machine. It should, perhaps, be explained that the Belgian soubriquet for this handsome aircraft arose from the location of its large radiator well aft under the fuselage. To meet a Belgian requirement for a fighter to succeed the Firefly, Faireys in England built a private-venture prototype with an Hispano l2Ycrs moteur canon and four rifle-calibre Browning guns. Named the Fantome, it was flight-tested at Fairey's Great West Aerodrome (generally known as Heathrow, and now, much extended, as London Airport) after construction at Hayes; it was then flown across to Belgium for demonstration before the authorities there. During a display at Evere, the original machine was destroyed; but, four sets of all fittings having been made, the remaining three sets were sent to Belgium to assist and expedite the construc- The occasion of the visit of H.R.H. Prince Baudouin of Belgium—the present King—to the Avions Fairey factory last May. From left to right are: Mr. Maurice Tips, Major Toilet, Prince Baudouin, General Leboutte, D.F.C., Mr. E. 0. Tips, and Mr. R. Coniot.
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