Fairey Archive material

When Westland decided to close the Hayes site two of the Fairey Directors, in a miff, put much of the archives in the incinerator. Ian Huntley had the foresite to fill his car boot a number of times with archives before they disappeared. Ian still has that in his collection. Westland only took what they thought would be useful and nothing that was duplicated at either site. The remains of anything from Hayes did go to the RAF Museum and are stored in boxes. The contents have never been sorted into any sort of category and much of it is day-to-day notes/letters etc although there is some interesting stuff. There is an archive of drawings – all unsorted! According to the ‘Museum it would take years to sort. The RAF Museum library has a small quantity of old files, mostly I think on transparent card. The archives from Stockport/Heaton Chapel/Ringway sites were for the most part after the war put in one of their old factory air raid shelters and with the development of the area for housing were bulldozed into the foundations of new estates. How do I know? I used to visit all those sites before their demise and talked to many people on the workforce – including Ian Huntley who became a friend.
Billbattle

Firefly remains

The engine number in the photo identifies the piece as a Griffon Mk.5900 series Engine Change Unit, full id being 46344/A639007 which was fitted to Fairey Firefly U.Mk.8 WM899 for the duration of its fairly short life.

It was built at the Fairey Stockport factory, making its first flight on 18 October 1956 from Ringway. The test pilot was F/Lt David Masters who took off at 15.35 and landed at 16.00hrs.

WM899 was delivered to RNAS Anthorn 1 November 1955 for storage. However, it was involved in an incident and returned to Fairey, Ringway 9 November 1955 for Cat 4 repairs. It returned to Anthorn and was stored until delivered to Fairey Ringway 27 November 1956 for modifications, staying until 24 April 1957 when it was delivered to Short Bros at Llanbedr. It was damaged while landing at Llanbedr on 13 May 1957 and returned to Fairey Ringway for repairs on 10 July 1957. After repairs it returned to Short Bros at Llanbedr on 26 November 1957.

WM899 crashed during operations at Llanbedr on 10 March 1958 and was Struck of Charge (SOC) 26 March 1958. After removal of useful items the aircraft was abandoned – some of the remains obviously surviving to the present day.

The Griffon 5900 identified the aircraft as for naval use, being cartridge start, required for flight deck operations, although in the later Mks of Firefly, the Mk.7 and U.8 this was not required as they did not operate from carriers. The 5900 featured a single propeller shaft driven through a plain spur gearing. When viewed from the rear the 5900 rotation was to the left.

Short Bros were the contracters to the Ministry for aircraft servicing at Llanbedr and Fairey had work parties. In 1957 RAF Llanbedr became RAE Llanbedr. By 1958 the area around the control tower and the dump near the hangar were littered with wrecked Firefly drones although U.9s continued into the late’50s. The last Firefly U.Mk.8 WJ147 was flown gracefully into the sea in June 1960 when the Meteor U.Mk.16s arrived.
Hope this helps, sorry I took so long!

Hurricane prop details

For the Hurricane IIB/IIC (Merlin XX) the prop assembly blades were Rotol RS5/27 Type DR292 with a diameter of 11ft 3in and weighed 279Ib. Hope this is what you were looking for.

Gannet props

The data I submitted (before Newark) was taken from the Gannet AEW3 manual – AP101B-2803-1A (formerly AP.4487C).
Information/data taken from books/articles is only as good as the author dictates. Like computers – rubbish in – rubbish out! Some authors do not check facts, taking what has been quoted before as gospel, when wrong info then becomes acceptable facts and the myth begins, which is very difficult to get changed and accepted. Bye

Foster H Dixon

Pru
I replied to your enquiry about your dad earlier this year but have not heard from you.
Billbattle

Nicolsons Hurricane

Adding to the enigma –
Peter D Masons book ‘Nicolson VC’ has a cover colour depiction (by M Timms)of his Hurricane with GN*A on the starboard side with a red fin flash right to the leading edge. Black spinner. Inside are two photos of Hurricanes belonging to 249 Sqd – one with a sky spinner, the other with a black one. Both are nose-type shots so no other details are visible.
Billbattle

Fairey-built Halifax

Nick – I have always had a great love of anything built by Fairey and have been accumulating information and photos for over 50 years. I have written numerous articles/books about Fairey aircraft.
The answer to your first question is that when aircraft were built all parts had a number stamped on them and were traceable. However, with the end of World War II all such logbooks relating to aircraft at the Stockport/Ringway factories, including the Halifax, Beaufighter and Fairey aircraft, were put in wartime air raid shelters on the old site and forgot. The whole area was leveled and built on so the existing stuff is now under the suburbs of Stockport. Fairey also had factories at other sites around Stockport but all such records joined the air raid shelters or were destroyed. Fairey also had factories at Hayes in Middlesex and Hamble but they left Stockport/Ringway to their own devices. I visited all the main sites many years ago before Fairey sold out to Westland or became Fairey Engineering at Stockport. I used these opportunities to record as much information as possible, which has paid off. Much of the information I used in my books is no longer available – Westland, on acquiring Fairey, destroyed many of the archives, as did a couple of zealous Fairey directors at Hayes.
I have copies of some of the Fairey test pilots flying logbooks at Ringway and if you let me have the serial number of the Halifax in question I will see whether there are any entries for the machine in question.
Regards for now or I can be contacted off-line at [email]william@harrison_site.net[/email]
Battlebill