Fairey Aircraft since 1915

Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1988. Reprint Edition, First Printing Thus. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Format is approximately 5.675 inches by 8.75 inches. vii, [3], 450, [4] pages. Frontis illustration. Illustrations. Preface. Preface to Reprint. Appendix: Consolidated list of Fairey constructor's numbers with associated serials/registrations, aircraft types and variants. Index. This history of one of the founder companies in the British aircraft industry first went to press more than a decade ago. Since then, events have been both dramatic and exciting, including many successful new developments among the companies carrying the Fairey name--which is one of the few in the industry surviving from earlier days. The book contains a Historical Survey, as well as many black and white illustrations of airplanes. All of the types of aircraft, and many others, are fully described and illustrated by photographs and three-view drawings. The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military 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 World War II the company diversified into mechanical engineering and boat-building. The aircraft manufacturing arm was taken over by Westland Aircraft in 1960. Following a series of mergers and takeovers, the principal successor businesses to the company now trade as FBM Babcock Marine Ltd, Spectris plc, and WFEL (formerly Williams Fairey Engineering Limited), the latter manufacturing portable bridges. The first aircraft designed and built by the Fairey Aviation specifically for use on an aircraft carrier was the Fairey Campania a patrol seaplane that first flew in February 1917. In the third report of the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, reported in Flight magazine of 15 January 1925, aviation figures prominently. C. R. Fairey and the Fairey Aviation Co. Ltd, was awarded £4,000 for work on the Hamble Baby seaplane. Fairey subsequently designed many aircraft types and, after World War II, missiles. The Fairey company was also involved in the early development of pilotless aircraft which led to the development of radio controlled pilotless target aircraft in Britain and the United States in the 1930s. In 1931, the Fairey "Queen" radio-controlled target was developed, building a batch of three. The Queen was a modified Fairey IIIF floatplane, (a catapult launched aircraft which was used for reconnaissance by the Royal Navy). Apart from installing radio gear the Queen also had some aerodynamic modifications to improve stability, however the first couple of pilotless flights came to quick endings as the drones crashed as soon as they left the catapult launcher on HMS Valiant.