Month: April 2017

The Historic Flight Foundation near Seattle, WA, have just acquired G-AHXW, a De Havilland DH.98A Dragon Rapide, that was owned for some years in the 1950s and 1960s by Fairey Aviation and then Fairey Surveys.  They would like to hear about what sort of work it was doing, or any really interesting projects it may have been part of.

The museum has sent a couple of photographs of when the aeroplane arrived there on 31st March 2017, which are shown below.  A trawl through the internet also found a photograph of G-AHXW in Fairey Surveys livery at White Waltham in 1965 on the website Air Photographic International (https://www.airphotographicinternational.com), which has hundreds of great photographs of old aircraft for sale, all identified with type, registration, location and date.  Chris Knott, the owner of the website, has very generously allowed us to publish the photograph here.

If you have any information you would like to share, please reply, below, or send an email to admin@faireysurveys.co.uk, and we’ll pass on your details to the museum, or contact them direct at: imperfectsense@gmail.com

 

The website has been contacted by Bruce Hales-Dutton, who has been asked by the monthly magazine ‘Aeroplane’ to write an article about Fairey Surveys.  The idea is to write about the aircraft, particularly the DC-3s, and to use the memories and stories of the Fairey Surveys staff who were involved with them, in whatever capacity.

Mr Hales-Dutton is a freelance aviation writer and journalist, whose name appears on at least one published aircraft book, about the Comet.

If you would like to send in a story to be used, or would like to talk to Mr Hales-Dutton, please leave a reply below, or send an email to admin@faireysurveys.co.uk and we’ll pass on your details to him.

There are a few stories already on the website, but there must be many more.  Rob Wallace remembers a search through the huge Enugu market in Nigeria for a special 5 foot long Pratt and Whitney spanner to change the engine on a DC-3.  Astonishingly, the search was successful, and the engine was changed, but the process, with much arm-waving and sign language, was pure entertainment.

Please let us know if you have any stories you would like to share.