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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.

Contents

History

Avions Fairey

Engineering

Land Rover hubs and overdrives

Fairey Engineering

Aircraft

Fairey aircraft

Aircraft built as subcontractor or under licence

Missiles

Factory brass band

References

External references

See also

External links

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, post World War Two, 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 Two was the Swordfish.
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.^[2] 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.^[3]

Avions Fairey

Fairey aircraft had impressed the Belgian authorities and a subsidiary was established to produce Fairey aircraft in Belgium^[4]

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.
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 the Fairey-designed winch for a few years. The site is now Superwinch's European base and manufacturing facility. 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 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 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)^[5]

Missiles

★ Fairey Fireflash

★ Green cheese missile

★ 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

1. E.g. in 1915 Fairey built 12 Short Admiralty Type 827 seaplanes under subcontract from Short Brothers (see Barnes and James, p.104)
2. Which was not the sole factor for a merger; there are other factors that brevity requires not be discussed here. See Westland and the British Helicopter Industry, 1945-1960: Licensed Production vs. Indigenous Innovation, , Matthew R. H., Uttley, Routledge, 2001,
3. Uttley (2001), p. 183, has the merger dates as 14th July 1959 (Saunders-Roe), 23rd March 1960 (Bristol), and 2nd May 1960 (Fairey).
4. [1]
5. Description of the early years of Fairey Aviation (Smithsonian)

External references

★ Shorts Aircraft since 1900, , , Barnes C.H. & James D.N, Putnam, , ISBN 0-85177-819-4

See also

External links

★ WFEL