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 for more than four decades. Like so many other aircraft manufacturers of the day, it found its feet by taking on subcontract work, as well as building up its own aircraft portfolio. Fairey did not just sit back and produce aircraft in line with specifications, it designed new features that would be incorporated in all aircraft in the future. The company's greatest, and most surprising, success story also came about in the 1930s, when the ubiquitous Swordfish entered production in 1936. This basic torpedo-bombing biplane proved to be very effective against enemy warships. Post-World War Two production saw the naval theme continue with the Firefly, which would see action in Korea, and finally the Gannet, which continued to serve the Royal Navy well into the 1970s. The company's venture into rotary-wing aircraft would eventually become its undoing, despite huge technical achievements being achieved in a very short space of time, and it was absorbed into Westlands in 1960. With over 150 images, this book charts the history of the company and examines each aircraft it produced over its 45-year run.
