The Fairey FC1 was a British

airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest ...

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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and no examples were built.

Development and design

In 1938, the British

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

, 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 Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

only, who produced their S.32 design to meet it, while 15/38 was issued to a number of companies, including

Fairey Aviation The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes, Hillingdon, Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft ...

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 ...

on 12 November 1938. The FC1 was a four-engined low-winged

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with a

pressurized Pressurization or pressurisation is the application of pressure in a given situation or environment. Examples Industrial Industrial equipment is often maintained at pressures above or below atmospheric. Atmospheric This is the process by which a ...

cabin accommodating 26 passengers and a crew of 5. A nosewheel undercarriage was fitted and four

Bristol Taurus The Taurus is a British 14-cylinder two-row radial aircraft engine, produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1936. The Taurus was developed by adding cylinders to the existing single-row Aquila design and transforming it into a twi ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

s 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. 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 landi ...

. 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 In fluid dynamics, the lift coefficient () is a dimensionless quantity that relates the lift generated by a lifting body to the fluid density around the body, the fluid velocity and an associated reference area. A lifting body is a foil or a co ...

of around 31%. The Fairey-Youngman flap and its initial downward parallel movement was superseded for other aircraft by the

Fowler 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 ...

, 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 Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy to be fabricated entirely from metal. The Barra ...

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

dive brake Dive brakes or dive flaps are deployed to slow down an aircraft when in a dive. They often consist of a metal flap that is lowered against the air flow, thus creating drag and reducing dive speed.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, ...

Charles Richard Fairey Sir Charles Richard Fairey (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 Taylors' Sc ...

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

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 position in the British government that existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretary of State for Air was supported by ...

when asked in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

, questions regarding the journey from London to Singapore made by Imperial Airways, if there were any modern aircraft being constructed for

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...

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 Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

'', 17 December 1942. pp. 664–667. * *

External links