Fairey Aviation Company
| Fairey Aviation Company | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Ltd. ( GmbH ) |
| founding | 1915 |
| resolution | 1960 |
| Seat | Hayes (Hillingdon) , UK |
| Branch | Aviation industry |
The Fairey Aviation Company was a British aircraft manufacturer . The company, founded in 1915, became famous for the torpedo bomber Fairey Swordfish .
After World War II, Fairey began developing aircraft helicopters . In 1960 the company merged with Westland Aircraft .
history
Fairey Aviation was founded in 1915 by Charles Richard Fairey (later Sir Richard) (* 1887 , † September 30, 1956 in London ). Charles Fairey was originally chief designer in the Short Brothers aircraft company . In the early days of his company, he built seaplanes for his former employers .
With the Campania seaplane , Fairey developed his own successful machine, followed by other designs such as the Fairey III , Albacore or Barracuda . With the Swordfish , the manufacturer succeeded in making the most successful aircraft in the company's history.
After a few successful attempts with the Gyrodyne helicopter - a helicopter that took off vertically with a rotor and was also powered by a propeller conventionally attached to a wing in horizontal flight - the Rotodyne combination helicopter was developed at Fairey (first flight in November 1957).
With the transition from Fairey's company to the Westland Group in 1960 and the associated problems, the British government initially failed to pay committed loans for the Rotodyne project and it was discontinued.
After merging with Westland, the company continued to operate in aviation development under the Fairey name. In May 2001 the name Fairey Group was changed to Spectris; this company is now a provider of electronic control systems.
Fairey Marine Ltd
Charles Fairey owned a sailboat together with another British aviation pioneer, Thomas Sopwith , in the 1930s . They both spent a lot of time improving this boat and making it faster. This prompted Fairey to found Fairey Marine Ltd, which manufactured sailboats, in the late 1940s.
Many of the boat types had names identical to some of the aircraft types, e.g. B. Firefly, Albacore, Swordfish, Atalanta or Fulmar.
Well-known Fairey patterns (sorted chronologically by first flight)
- Fairey Hamble Baby (first flight 1917)
- Fairey Campania (first flight 1917)
- Fairey F.2 (first flight 1917)
- Fairey N9
- Fairey III (biplane, also seaplane, carrier-based single-engine fighter, first flight 1917, built in different versions until 1932)
- Fairey Pintail (first flight 1920)
- Fairey Flycatcher (biplane, carrier-based single-engine fighter, first flight November 1922)
- Fairey Firefly I (first flight 1925)
- Fairey Fawn (first flight 1923, until 1926 70 machines for the RAF)
- Fairey Atalanta
- Fairey N.4 Titania
- Fairey Freemantle (long-range seaplane, first flight 1925)
- Fairey Fox (biplane, bomber, first flight 1925, only 28 machines for the RAF)
- Fairey Long-range Monoplane (record aircraft, first flight in 1928, second machine in 1931)
- Fairey Firefly II (first flight 1929)
- Fairey Fleetwing (first flight in 1929, a prototype, in competition with the Hawker Osprey )
- Fairey Ferret
- Fairey Seal (biplane, torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, also seaplane, first flight 1930)
- Fairey Gordon (first flight in 1931, until 1934 207 newbuildings, plus conversions from Fairey III F)
- Fairey Hendon (twin-engine night bomber, first flight 1931, 14 series aircraft 1936/37)
- Fairey Swordfish (biplane, carrier-based, single-engine torpedo bomber, reconnaissance plane and submarine fighter, first flight April 17, 1934)
- Fairey Fantôme (single-seat fighter, first flight 1935)
- Fairey Battle (low-wing, single-engine, light bomber, first flight March 10, 1936, 2185 machines built by the end of 1940)
- Fairey P.4 / 34 (first flight 1937)
- Fairey Albacore (biplane, single-engine, carrier-based torpedo bomber, reconnaissance and observation aircraft, first flight December 1938)
- Fairey Seafox (seaplane, reconnaissance aircraft, first flight 1936)
- Fairey Fulmar (carrier-based fighter, first flight January 13, 1937)
- Fairey Barracuda (Single-engine, carrier-supported torpedo and dive bomber, December 7, 1940)
- Fairey Firefly (low-wing, carrier-based, single-engine fighter, first flight December 22, 1941)
- Fairey Spearfish (dive bomber, first flight July 5, 1945)
- Fairey Primer (trainer aircraft, first flight 1948)
- Fairey Gyrodyne (helicopter, first flight 1947)
- Fairey Gannet (carrier-based, single-engine submarine fighter, first flight September 19, 1949)
- Fairey FD1 (experimental aircraft, delta aircraft, first flight 1950)
- Fairey Delta 2 , also Fairey Type V (experimental and record-breaking aircraft for supersonic, delta aircraft, single-engine jet, first flight October 6, 1954)
- Fairey Jet Gyrodyne (Gyrodyne, first flight 1954)
- Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter (first flight 1955)
- Fairey Rotodyne (helicopter, first flight November 6, 1957)
