Fairey Aviation

Fairey Aviation is best remembered as a supplier to the Fleet Air Arm, but it achieved far more that that. It built the aircraft that made the first crossing of the South Atlantic in 1922, broke the world distance record in 1933 and set the first over-1,000 mph speed record in 1956 with a 38 per cent margin that has never been exceeded. Some of Britain's first guided missiles and world-beating helicopters are all part of the story, the background to this collection of 220 archive photographs. It was all started by a young man who left school at fifteen and built rather special model aeroplanes. The story of Fairey Aviation is his story too.