Fairey 1915-60

One of the many ingredients required for creating a great aircraft company is the ability to diversify, and this was just one of the strengths that would keep the Fairey Aviation Company in business from 1915 through to 1960. Like so many other aircraft manufacturers of the day, it found its feet by taking on sub-contract work, and, while this was being carried out, it began to build on its own aircraft portfolio. Fairey did not just sit back and produce aircraft in line with specifications, they designed new features that would be incorporated in all aircraft in the future. The company’s greatest, and most surprising, success story came about when the ubiquitous Swordfish, affectionately known as the ‘Stringbag’ entered production in 1936. The company’s venture into rotary wing aircraft would eventually become its undoing. Soaked up by Westlands in 1960, the legacy of the company’s final aircraft, the Rotodyne, still lives on today.