The Fairey FC1 was a British

airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ...

project of the 1930s. Although an order was placed for 14 FC1s in 1938, work was stopped by the outbreak of the Second World War, and no examples were built.

Development and design

In 1938, the British Air Ministry, eager to encourage the development of British commercial land planes, which were seen to be lagging behind foreign designs, issued a pair of specifications for new airliners, the first, Specification 14/38 for a long-range airliner, and the second, 15/38, for a short/medium haul aircraft. Specification 14/38 was issued to Short Brothers only, who produced their S.32 design to meet it, while 15/38 was issued to a number of companies, including Fairey Aviation and

General Aircraft Limited General Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1931 to amalgamation with Blackburn Aircraft in 1949 to become Blackburn and General. Its main products were military gliders and light transport aircraft. His ...

. Fairey's proposal, the FC1, was chosen as the winner of the competition in October 1938, and an order placed for two prototypes and twelve production aircraft, to be used by

British Airways Ltd. British Airways Ltd was a British airline company operating in Europe in the period 1935–1939. It was formed in 1935 by the merger of Spartan Air Lines Ltd, United Airways Ltd (no relation to the US carrier United Airlines), and Hillman's ...

on 12 November 1938. The FC1 was a four-engined low-winged monoplane with a pressurized cabin accommodating 26 passengers and a crew of 5. A nosewheel undercarriage was fitted and four Bristol Taurus radial engines were to power the aircraft. To achieve long range, the aircraft was designed for efficient cruising with the engines at half power. This required careful streamlining, both for the shaping of the fuselage and also for careful surface finishing. Drag was reduced by the small size of the wings and their high wing loading of 32 lb/sq ft. This would otherwise make the aircraft difficult to handle, especially with a high landing speed, but this was countered by the new development of the

Fairey-Youngman flap A flap is a high-lift device used to reduce the stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to reduce the take-off distance and the landin ...

. The Fairey-Youngman flap was patented in 1941. These flaps were large, around 1/3rd of the wing chord. Their movement went in two phases, controlled by a linkage; firstly the flap lowered below the wing and approximately parallel, making the aircraft almost a

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

. This gave improved lift, but with little extra drag, and was used for landing. The flaps could be extended further for landing, now rotating downwards to 30° as a

slotted flap A flap is a high-lift device used to reduce the stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to reduce the take-off distance and the landing ...

. With the use of flaps, wing loading was reduced to the equivalent of 25 lb/sq ft and also gave a gain in lift coefficient of around 31%. The Fairey-Youngman flap and its initial downward parallel movement was superseded for other aircraft by the Fowler flap, which too had an initial parallel movement, although rearward sliding. Fairey did use this flap design for other aircraft though, such as the

Fairey Barracuda The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo and dive bomber designed by Fairey Aviation. It was the first aircraft of this type operated by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) to be fabricated entirely from metal. The Barracuda ...

dive bomber, as the design could be modified to also tilt the extended flap upwards, acting as a dive brake.

Charles Richard Fairey Sir Charles Richard Fairey MBE FRAeS (5 May 1887 – 30 September 1956), also known as Richard Fairey, was an English aircraft manufacturer. Early life Charles Fairey was born on 5 May 1887 in Hendon, Middlesex and educated at the Merchant Ta ...

is said to have spent at least £1 million out of his own pocket on the project. The project was cancelled on 17 October 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War in September. Fairey proposed restarting the project after the end of the war in 1945, fitting more modern engines, but nothing came of the proposal. The then

Secretary of State for Air The Secretary of State for Air was a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state position in the British government, which existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretar ...

when asked in the House of Commons, questions regarding the journey from London to Singapore made by Imperial Airways, if there were any modern aircraft being constructed for Imperial Airways by which might reduce the journey time replied; "It is intended to speed up progressively the time-table of the Empire Service by an extension of night flying and also, in due course, by the construction of aircraft, prototype production orders for which have already been placed for 14 aircraft being constructed by Fairey's, for completion in 1941 or 1942, to be used on this and other routes."Nichols, W., A.R.Ae.S. "Some past achievements and future problems: Post-war developments." ''Flight Global'', 1941.

Specification (March 1939 design)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Nichols, W.
Transport Aircraft: Some Past Achievements and Future Problems: Post War Developments.
'' Flight'', 17 December 1942. pp. 664–667. * *

External links