Issue No 21 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 101
troops around the world. However, he had not
reckoned with the conventional wisdom of the
time and the ways of ministers, who could not see
that it was possible for a civil airliner to double
as a military transport. The Secretary of State for
Air, Sir Kingsley Wood, issued a personal reply to
Fairey, stating that it was not possible to complete
a civil airliner as a military transport.
Fairey then submitted plans to Shelmerdine, the
Director General of Civil Aviation, for a larger,
long-range version of the FC.1. With production
drawings available, conversion to the larger
version would have been relatively simple and
would also serve the RAF’s commitments around
the world admirably. Fairey was devastated
when Shelmerdine cancelled the FC.1 on October
17, 1939, construction of the prototype stopping
completely in May 1940. Fairey was instructed to
strip its civil aircraft assembly shop and place all
completed parts and jigging in storage at the rear
of the factory for the duration of the war.
Thus the development of a highly promising
British airliner ceased, much to the detriment of
the nation’s civil aircraft industry. Despatched to
Washington DC as a member of the Air Section
of the British Purchasing Commission, Richard
Fairey experienced the intense frustration of
watching the Americans develop four-engined
tricycle-undercarriage aircraft such as the DC-4
and Constellation into world-class military
transports. He did, however, send an order back
to his own company in the UK to keep the files on
the FC.1 open. This the company did and in late
1945 the FC.1 was redesigned, to be powered by
four Bristol Hercules sleeve-valve engines. The
project was never revived, however.
So what would this elegant, forward-looking
design have looked like and how was it to have
been built?the details
The fuselage of the FC.1 was to be made up of
three detachable units of an all-metal light-alloy-
sheet (Alclad) monocoque construction. The
forward portion reached from the nosecone to the
bulkhead at the forward end of the passenger cabin
and included the flightdeck, flight engineer’s
and wireless operator’s stations, forward freight
compartment and the crew lavatory. The wireless
operator, located behind the second pilot, would
be responsible for the operation of short- and
medium-wave transmitters and receivers, a
medium-wave direction-finding (DF) receiver
with loop and VHF landing and approach
receiving equipment.
The central portion comprised the passenger
cabin, with the space between the cabin floor and
outer skin constructed as an additional freight
area. The passenger cabin was 30ft 6in (9·3m)
long and accommodated rows of twin seats,
with a total width of 4ft (1·2m), on each side of
a central aisle. Eight windows were incorporated
on each side, every alternate window doubling
as an emergency exit which could be pushed out.
Headroom was to be 6ft 6in (2m) with a volume
of space per passenger of no less than 60ft³
(1·7m³). The fuselage was to be of circular cross-
section, which offered the possibility of the
addition of a pressure cabin at a later date.
The rear portion extended to the empennage and
included a rear freight compartment with access
provided through the freight compartment to theA company model with cutaways showing the
proposed internal layout of the FC.1. The passengers
were to be accommodated in several rows comprising
two seats either side of a central aisle, with overhead
compartments for light items of luggage. The wireless
operator would be stationed behind the co-pilot’s
right-hand seat in the flightdeck compartment.