Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton
Shows the BAC 221, the first Fairey Delta 2 rebuilt with an ogee wing for Concorde research, beside the British Concorde prototype.
The types
Fairey aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gloster Gamecock & Fairey FlycatcherGamecock I, Flycatcher I | 1922 | c.300 | 2 |
| Fairey Swordfish | 1934 | 2,391 | 3 |
| Fairey Battle | 1936 | 2,185 | 1 |
| Fairey Albacore & BarracudaAlbacore I, Barracuda II | 1938 | c.3,400 | 1 |
| Fairey Fulmar & Firefly | 1941 | ~2,200 | 2 |
| Fairey GannetAS.1, T.2, AEW.3, COD.4, ECM.6 | 1949 | 347 | 10 |
| Fairey Delta 2 / BAC 221 | 1954 | 2 | 2 |
| Westland 30 & the might-have-beens+ Rotodyne parts | 1976 | 40 | 1 |
The firm
Fairey in brief
Fairey was a major supplier of naval aircraft. The Fairey III, Swordfish, Fulmar, Firefly and Gannet all served the Fleet Air Arm. For the RAF it built the Battle light bomber. On 10 March 1956 the Fairey Delta 2 set a world airspeed record of 1,132 mph. Test pilot Peter Twiss proposed the attempt.
The Rotodyne compound helicopter was built at Hayes in 1957. In 1960 Fairey’s aircraft business was merged into Westland. The group carried on in engineering and boatbuilding.
Where to go
Museums holding Fairey aircraft
| Museum | Fairey types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 6 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 3 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 2 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Cornwall at War Museum, DavidstowCamelford, Cornwall | 1 | £7 | 8 | Cornwall’s big WW2 / military museum on the old RAF Davidstow Moor Coastal Command field — aircraft, military vehicles, humour intact,… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 1 | £9 | 45 | Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 1 | Donation | 15 | Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 1 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 1 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 1 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 1 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 1 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 1 | £15 | 108 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 1 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
Questions
Frequently asked
What was the Fairey Delta 2?
A delta-wing research jet that first flew in 1954. On 10 March 1956 it set a world airspeed record of 1,132 mph. Both examples survive in UK museums.
Where were Fairey aircraft built?
Mainly at Hayes, Middlesex, and Heaton Chapel, Stockport.
What happened to Fairey Aviation?
Its aircraft business was merged into Westland in 1960. The rest of the group continued in engineering and boatbuilding.