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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1007.PDF
PLIGHT, 22 July 1955 119 On the right, a Gannet joins company with a Swordfish over the Needles. Below, a Fairey rocket-propelled V.T.O. test model at the instant of leaving its ramp at Woomera. FAMILY OF FAIREYS Forty-year Retrospect by H. F. King, M.B.E salute to the Fairey Aviation Co., Ltd., on its fortieth anniversary is a survey of the company's amazingly prolific, varied and successful line of air- crar. Supporting the descriptive notes is a unique collection of ihotographs, mainly from Fairey's own archives, and man depicting machines never before illustrated. The occaspn must not pass, however, without brief reference to the ris; of the company itself, under its founder, chairman and msoaging director, Sir Richard Fairey. In thi early 1900s Dick Fairey was a diligent aeromodeller, and in 1>H he turned his attention to the full-scale machines at the old xero Club flying ground, Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey. There thi Short brothers were busily building, flying and repair- ing; and there, too, was the headquarters of the Blair Atholl Syndicate working on tailless machines to the designs of J. W. Dunne, 'toung Fairey obtained a post with the Syndicate as manager aid chief engineer, and under his direction four tailless Dunnes—me a monoplane, the others biplanes—were con- structed. While thus employed he met Vincent Nicholl, Maurice Wright and F. G. T. in buiding up the great F.R.Ae.S.. Hon. F.I.A.S. Fairey organization. From the Syndicate, in 1913, Mr. Fairey joined Short Brothers as chief engineer, and in 1915 founded the Fairey Avia- tion Co., Ltd., with a factory (a wooden shed) at Harlington, Middlesex— and a drawing-office in Piccadilly. In the beginning the company constructed sea- planes to Short designs, but original Faireys were in prospect and Mr. Fairey acquired Admiralty sheds at Hamble Point, Southampton Water. On the same site erecting shops were established and a slipway laid down. The first pilot engaged was Sydney Pickles, who was testing the Fairey-bullt Shorts at Hamble late in 1915. To enable them to fulfil a Government contract for a hun- dred Sopwith li-Strutter land- planes the company took over a new factory at Hayes, where the entire order was executed in just over six months. The 'Strutters were erected and flight-tested at Kingsbury aerodrome—long- since extinct. The first Fairey aircraft to original designs, the F.2 twin- engined fighter, was first flown near the works, at Harlington, but the ground was unsatisfactory and permission was secured to use Northolt aerodrome. There, in the early 1920s, Lt-Col. Vincent Nicholl was to test the HID landplane, Fawn and Fly- catcher, and later still Capt. Norman Macmillan was to conduct the trials of Ferret, Firefly I, IHF, Flycatcher II, Long-range Mono- plane, Fox and Fleetwing. Today the new Gannet turbine- powered anti-submarine aircraft for the Royal Navy fly out of Northolt after assembly for pre-delivery testing at White Wal- tham. Fairey's first seaplane was the Hamble Baby, an adaptation of a Sopwith design, but in 1916 they built for the Admiralty the larger Campania, of which a number of variants were developed and produced. From this branch of the family stemmed the Series III, and from this type in turn were developed the IIIA, B, C, D, F, Gordon and Seal. Production of these sturdy, versatile biplanes continued—in metal, and with various engines—until the 1930s; and, though the airframe was very much cleaned up, still the unstaggered two-bay wings stamped each successive machine as a "Type III." The Atlanta and Titania flying-boats, built for the Air Ministry after the 1914-18 war, were in their day the world's largest; the sturdy little Flycatcher was one of the most popular fighters ever in British service; and the sleek Fox day bomber of 1925 outstripped contemporary fighters. Originally powered with the Curtiss D.12 engine (and utilizing other Ameri- can techniques for which Mr. Fairey procured the rights) the Fox was progressively anglicized, and the later all-metal version, together widi a metal development of the Firefly single-seater, secured important contracts from the Belgian Government. These led to the establishment, in 1931, of Avions Fairey as a Belgian subsidiary of the parent company. The history of that enterprising concern (wherein Mr. E. O, Tips has been most intimately and actively concerned) was recounted in some detail in Flight of May 2nd, 1952. The Fairey technical staff were not slow to appreciate the virtues of the cantilever monoplane, and to this formula two Long-range Monoplanes were put to the test in 1929 and 1933. In the second
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