The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes (Middlesex) and Heaton Chapel/Ringway in Greater Manchester. Notable for a number of important planes, including the Fairey III family, the Swordfish, Firefly and Gannet, it had a strong presence in the supply of naval aircraft, and also built bombers for the RAF. After the Second World War the company diversified into mechanical engineering. Aircraft manufacturing ceased in 1960. Following a series of mergers and takeovers, the company now trades as WFEL (Williams-Fairey Engineering Ltd.), manufacturing portable bridges.
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History
Founded in 1915 by Charles Richard Fairey (later Sir Richard Fairey) on his departure from Short Brothers, the company first built under licence or as subcontractor aircraft designed by other manufacturers[1]. The first aircraft designed and built by the Fairey Aviation was the Fairey Campania, a patrol seaplane that first flew in February 1917. Fairey subsequently designed many aircraft types and, after World War 2, missiles. Fairey was initially based at Hayes (Middlesex), and for some years at Hamble (Hampshire). Their most famous Hayes-built aircraft during the late 1930s and World War 2 was the Swordfish. The protoype Fairey Rotodyne vertical takeoff airliner was built at Hayes and assembled at White Waltham in 1957.[2] After merger, helicopters such as the Westland Wasp were built at Hayes in the 1960s.[3] Receipt of large UK military contracts in the mid 1930s necessitated acquisition of a large factory in Heaton Chapel (Stockport) in 1935 and flight test facilities at Manchester's Ringway Airport in 1937. A few Hendon monoplane bombers built at Stockport were flown from Manchester's Barton Aerodrome in 1936. Quantity production of Battle light bombers at Stockport/Ringway commenced in mid 1937. Large numbers of Fulmar fighters and Barracuda dive-bombers followed during WWII. Fairey's also built 498 Bristol Beaufighter aircraft and over 660 Handley Page Halifax bombers in their northern facilities. Postwar, Firefly and Gannet naval aircraft were supplemented by sub-contracts from de Havilland for Vampire and Venom jet fighters. Aircraft production and modification at Stockport and Ringway ceased in 1960. The government in the late 1950s was determined to see the UK's aero industry "rationalised". The UK Ministry of Defence saw the future of helicopters as being best met by a single manufacturer.[4] The merger of Fairey's aviation interests with Westland Aircraft took place in early 1960 shortly after Westland had acquired the helicopter divisions of both Saunders-Roe and the Bristol Aeroplane Company.[5]
Avions Fairey
Fairey aircraft had impressed the Belgian authorities and a subsidiary was established to produce Fairey aircraft in Belgium[6]
Engineering
Land Rover hubs and overdrives
In the post-war period, from the late 1950s onwards, Fairey acquired Mayflower Automotive Products, including their factory in Tavistock, Devon and with it the designs of its products, including winch and free-wheeling front hubs for Land Rover vehicles. By the 1970s Fairey was manufacturing a wide range of winches covering mechanical,hydraulic and electric drive and capstan/drum configurations. Fairey winches formed the bulk of the manufacturer-approved winch options for Land Rover throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1975 Fairey designed and manufactured a mechanical overdrive unit for Land Rovers. Vehicles fitted with the unit carried a badge on the rear saying 'Overdrive by Fairey', with the Fairey logo (see above). This branch of products effectively ceased in the early 1980s when new product development at Land Rover and a trend for manufacturers to build accessories in-house forced Fairey to drop out of the sector. The American company Superwinch bought the Tavistock works and continued making Fairey-designed winches for a few years. The site is now Superwinch's European base and manufacturing facility. Fairey-designed hydraulic winches are still in production, but the large majority of manufacture is of Superwinch-designed electric drum winches. The Fairey Overdrive is still in production in America.
Fairey Engineering
After the end of aircraft production, The Fairey Aviation factory in Heaton Chapel became Fairey Engineering, involved in medium and heavy engineering including
- portable bridges for military and emergency services use, notably Medium Girder Bridge. Its bridges are in service with the British Army,U.S. Army and many other NATO forces. (WFEL continues to build MGB and other bridges)
- Nuclear Reactor cores and Fuelling machines, for Dungeness B, Trawsffyndd
which became Williams Fairey Engineering in 1986, then taken over by Kidde in 2000, and is now known as WFEL. Still based in Stockport
Aircraft
Fairey aircraft
Year of first flight in brackets
- Fairey Hamble Baby
- Fairey Campania - 1917
- Fairey III - large biplane family, starting late 1917
- Fairey Pintail - 1920
- Fairey Flycatcher - biplane fighter, 1922
- Fairey Fawn - 1923
- Fairey Firefly I - 1925
- Fairey Fremantle - long range seaplane 1925
- Fairey Fox - biplane bomber, 1925
- Fairey Long-range Monoplane - 1928
- Fairey Firefly II - 1929
- Fairey Seal - biplane torpedo bomber, reconnaissance floatplane, 1930
- Fairey Gordon - 1931
- Fairey Swordfish - biplane torpedo bomber, 1934
- Fairey Fantôme - single seat fighter 1935
- Fairey Hendon - monoplane night bomber 1935
- Fairey Battle - light bomber, 1936
- Fairey Seafox - reconnaissance floatplane, 1936
- Fairey P.4/34 - 1937
- Fairey Fulmar - carrier-borne fighter, 1940
- Fairey Albacore - carrier-borne biplane torpedo bomber, 1938
- Fairey Barracuda - carrier-borne divebomber/torpedo bomber, 1940
- Fairey Firefly - carrier-borne fighter, 1941
- Fairey Spearfish - divebomber, 1945
- Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne - gyrodyne (autogyro/compound helicopter) 1947
- Fairey Jet Gyrodyne - gyrodyne 1954
- Fairey Primer - trainer 1948
- Fairey Gannet - carrier-borne ASW (later AEW) aircraft, 1949
- Fairey F.D.1 - experimental delta wing 1950
- Fairey F.D.2 - record-setting delta-wing, 1954
- Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter (1955)
- Fairey Rotodyne - compound helicopter, 1957
Aircraft built as subcontractor or under licence
Number built in brackets
- Short Admiralty Type 827 (12)
- Sopwith 1½ Strutter (100)[7]
Missiles
- Fairey Fireflash
- Green cheese missile
- Stooge - ship surface-to-air missile project from the 1940s.
- Swingfire
Factory brass band
In 1937, workers at the Fairey aviation plant formed a brass band. For some sixty years the band was associated with the company and its successors, although the Fairey Band has now had to turn to external sources for financial backing. Throughout its history though the band has retained its identity with the company under guises as the Fairey Aviation Works Band, Williams Fairey Band and later Fairey (FP Music) Band. The band has recently returned to roots, rebranding as just The Fairey Band. The Fairey Band won many national and international titles throughout its proud history.
References
- ^ E.g. in 1915 Fairey built 12 Short Admiralty Type 827 seaplanes under subcontract from Short Brothers (see Barnes and James, p.104)
- ^ Helicopter Museum
- ^ Fleet Air Arm Museum
- ^ Which was not the sole factor for a merger; there are other factors that brevity requires not be discussed here. See Uttley, Matthew R. H. (2001). Westland and the British Helicopter Industry, 1945-1960: Licensed Production vs. Indigenous Innovation. Routledge, p. 183. ISBN 0-714-651-94X.
- ^ Uttley (2001), p. 183, has the merger dates as 14th July 1959 (Saunders-Roe), 23rd March 1960 (Bristol), and 2nd May 1960 (Fairey).
- ^ [1]
- ^ Description of the early years of Fairey Aviation (Smithsonian)
External references
- Barnes C.H. & James D.N. Shorts Aircraft since 1900. London (1989): Putnam, 560. ISBN 0-85177-819-4.
See also
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| General | Timeline of aviation · Aircraft · Aircraft manufacturers · Aircraft engines · Aircraft engine manufacturers · Airports · Airlines |
| Military | Air forces · Aircraft weapons · Missiles · Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) · Experimental aircraft |
| Notable incidents and accidents | Military aviation · Airliners · General aviation · Famous aviation-related deaths |
| Records | Flight airspeed record · Flight distance record · Flight altitude record · Flight endurance record · Most produced aircraft |
