Avions Fairey was the Belgian-based subsidiary of the British
Fairey Aviation
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 a ...
that built aircraft for the Belgian government. It subsequently separated from the UK parent and became
SONACA.
History
In the late 1920s, the ''Aéronautique Militaire'' (
Belgian Air Force
The Belgian Air Component ( nl, Luchtcomponent, french: Composante air) is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force ( nl, Belgische Luchtmacht; french: Force aérienne belg ...
) set out to replace its old aircraft. Accordingly, Belgian officers attended the
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...
Air Display where they saw a
Fairey Firefly
The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Avia ...
and met Fairey staff. The Firefly toured Belgian air bases in 1930 and met with approval from pilots. This led to a contract for 12 UK-built Firefly II to be followed by a further 33 aircraft built in Belgium.
Fairey already had a number of Belgians in key roles in the company;
Ernest Oscar Tips
Ernest Oscar Tips (born 2 October 1893 in Tielrode, died 10 March 1978 in Brussels) was a Belgian aircraft designer, who co-founded the Fairey Aviation Company in 1915 and its Belgian subsidiary Avions Fairey in 1931.
Biography
Early days
Bor ...
and
Marcel Lobelle
Marcel Lobelle (–1967) was a Belgian aeronautical engineer who spent his professional career working in Britain.
He was born in Kortrijk, Flanders, and fought in the Belgian Army at the start of World War I, with the 1st Regiment of Grenadiers ...
had joined during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Tips went to Belgium to set up the subsidiary company. He based the new company near
Charleroi
Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. . The fighter ace
Fernand Jacquet
Captain-Commandant Fernand Maximillian Leon Jacquet was a World War I flying ace credited with seven aerial victories. He was the first Belgian pilot to score an aerial victory, on 17 April 1915, and became the first Belgian ace on 1 February 1917 ...
who operated a flying school nearby joined the company in 1931.
Avions Fairey received further orders for Fireflies followed by
Fairey Fox
The Fairey Fox was a British light bomber and fighter biplane of the 1920s and 1930s. It was originally produced in Britain for the RAF, but continued in production and use in Belgium long after it was retired in Britain.
Development and desi ...
es which would be the main aircraft of the Belgian Air Force; being used as a fighter, bomber and training aircraft.
E.O. Tips designed a number of light civil aircraft at Avions Fairey; the "Tipsy" family of aircraft. After the 1933 Tipsy, came the S2 with a more powerful engine. The
Tipsy B
The Tipsy B was a small sports two-seat monoplane designed by Ernest Oscar Tips, and built in both Belgium and the UK. A total of 42 was built, and a few are still flying.
Design and development
Avions Fairey, the Fairey Aviation Company's Bel ...
was a side-by-side seat training aircraft. A tandem trainer was the
Tipsy M designed for the Belgian Air Force but overlooked for the SV4b. Tipsy series was successful and licence rights for production were sold in the UK and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
Most of Avions Fairey work was on military contracts. The contact with the Belgian military led to Fairey developing the
Fairey Fantôme
The Fairey Fantôme, also known as the Fairey Féroce, was a British Fighter aircraft, fighter prototype of the mid-1930s. The prototype was designed and built by Fairey Aviation and three production aircraft were assembled in Belgium by Avions ...
as a followup to the Firefly for the Belgians. Of the three prototypes, two ended up in Spain (via the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
) the third as a test aircraft with the RAF.
Although they ordered 12
Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hi ...
s in 1936 to replace the Fox, no further orders came until an order for
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...
s to be built in Belgium. However, on 10 May 1940, the factory was heavily bombed by the Germans.
The company personnel evacuated to France, and then left for England. Their ship was sunk by German bombers outside
St Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany.
The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. T ...
and eight Fairey staff were killed; the survivors worked for the parent company during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Post-war
After the war, Avions Fairey restarted at
Gosselies
Gosselies ( wa, Gochliye) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Located in the north of Charleroi, it was a city and a municipality of its own before the merger of the ...
airfield near
Charleroi
Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. by servicing
C-47 Skytrain
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
s of the Air Force; this was then extended to other aircraft.
Avions Fairey returned to production as a joint venture with Fokker to build
Gloster Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...
jet fighters: 240 were built between the companies for the Dutch and Belgian air forces.
Tipsy development continued; the
Tipsy Junior
The Avions Fairey Junior, also known as the Tipsy Junior was a single-seat light aircraft built in Belgium following World War II.
Development
The Junior was one of a series of light aircraft designed by and named after E.O.Tips of Fairey Aviat ...
single seater followed by the
Tipsy Belfair
The Avions Fairey Belfair, also known as the Tipsy Belfair after its designer, Ernest Oscar Tips, was a two-seat light aircraft built in Belgium following World War II.
Design and development
The Belfair was based on the Tipsy B built before t ...
. Sales were poor due to a glut of ex-military aircraft. In 1957 the
Tipsy Nipper
The Tipsy Nipper T.66 is an aerobatic light aircraft, developed in 1952 by Ernest Oscar Tips of Avions Fairey at Gosselies in Belgium. It was designed to be easy to fly, cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. It was designed for both factory prod ...
which was a very low cost aircraft was produced either assembled or in kit form.
In 1953, Avions Fairey was contracted to produce 256
Hawker Hunter
The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...
fuselages for the Dutch and Belgian air Force. This lasted until 1958. Avions Fairey continued in service contracts and, in conjunction with
SABCA
SABCA (Sociétés Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques) is a Belgian aerospace company. Its main sectors of activity are civil aviation, space and defence.
SABCA was established during 1920. Presently, it is owned by the French aircraf ...
, built Lockheed
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...
s under licence from 1962.
After Fairey UK bought the
Britten-Norman company, their
Islanders were built in Belgium and Romania and a
Trislander production line started in Belgium. Islanders built in Romania continued to be ferried to Britten-Norman for finishing flight certification as did all aircraft built in Belgium. Fairey UK had its own financial difficulties and the Belgian government took over Avions Fairey in order to preserve the Belgian
F-16
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
project.
On 1 June 1976, the
SONACA company was created from Avions Fairey.
References
{{Fairey Aviation Company
Avions Fairey
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Belgium
Fairey Aviation Company
Companies based in Hainaut (province)