Fairey Aviation Company

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Fairey Aviation Company Limited
Fairey Aviation Company logo
Fate ceased aircraft manufacture
Successor WFEL Limited
Founded 1915
Defunct 1960 (aircraft manufacturing)
Location Hayes, Heaton Chapel, Ringway
Industry aviation, engineering
Products Swordfish,
Delta 2,
Medium Girder Bridge
Key people Charles Richard Fairey

The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Greater London and Heaton Chapel and Ringway in Greater Manchester. Notable for the design of a number of important aircraft, 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 and boat-building. Aircraft manufacturing ceased in 1960. Following a series of mergers and takeovers, the company now trades as WFEL Ltd (formerly Williams Fairey Engineering Limited) manufacturing portable bridges.

Contents

[edit] 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[citation needed], 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 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]

[edit] Avions Fairey

Main article: Avions Fairey

Fairey aircraft had impressed the Belgian authorities and a subsidiary, Avions Fairey was established to produce Fairey aircraft in Belgium[6] The company staff left Belgium ahead of the German invasion of the Low Countries and returned after the war to build aircraft under license for the Belgian Air Force. With Fairey's financial trouble sin the later 1970s, the Belgian governement bough Avions Fairey to preserve its involvement in the Belgian F-16 project.

[edit] Engineering

[edit] Land Rover hubs and overdrives

A Fairey mechanical overdrive, as fitted to an early Range Rover.
A Fairey mechanical overdrive, as fitted to an early Range Rover.

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.

[edit] 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

The company became Williams Fairey Engineering in 1986, then taken over by Kidde in 2000, and is now known as WFEL. Still based in Stockport

[edit] Aircraft

[edit] Fairey aircraft

Year of first flight in brackets

[edit] Aircraft built as subcontractor or under licence

Number built in brackets

[edit] Aircraft engines

  • Fairey V P12
  • Fairey Princess 1,000 hp
  • Fairey H-16 Prince - 16 cylinder 1,500 hp
  • Fairey P-24 Monarch - 2 x 12 cylinders (two engines with one propshaft passing through the other) 2,250 hp.

[edit] Missiles

[edit] Boats

In the 1960s Fairey designed and built a range of wooden-hulled speedboats and motor launches designed by Alan Burnand. These became well-known in boating circles for their speed, stability and good rough-water handling. Types such as the Dagger and Spearfish were used as police launches and as pinnaces by the Royal Navy. In the early 1970s Fairey switched to GRP hulls of the same design. The range was expanded to include cabin cruiser types (such as the Swordfish) which could still put in an impressive turn of speed and won several cruiser-class long distances races, such as the London-Monte Carlo race.

Today, Swordsman Marine builds motorboats based on Fairey designs. These include 30-foot speedboats based on the Spearfish, using the same hull with a modified cabin and modern engine and controls, and larger cabin cruisers based on a modified version of the Dagger design.

[edit] 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 has won many national and international titles throughout its proud history.

[edit] 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. ^ Helicopter Museum
  3. ^ Fleet Air Arm Museum
  4. ^ 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. 
  5. ^ Uttley (2001), p. 183, has the merger dates as 14th July 1959 (Saunders-Roe), 23rd March 1960 (Bristol), and 2nd May 1960 (Fairey).
  6. ^ Avions Fairey Gosselies
  7. ^ Description of the early years of Fairey Aviation (Smithsonian)

[edit] External references

  • Barnes C.H. & James D.N. Shorts Aircraft since 1900. London (1989): Putnam, 560. ISBN 0-85177-819-4. 
  • Scholefield, R.A, Manchester Airport, Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1954-X
  • Taylor, H.A, Fairey Aircraft since 1915. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1974. ISBN 0-370-00065-X.

[edit] See also

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Lists relating to aviation
General
Military
Accidents/incidents
Records

[edit] External links