Brimpton Airfield, the home of Brimpton Flying Club and Percival Piston Provost T1

Wasing Lane, Aldermaston, Berkshire, RG7 4LY  Clubhouse tel: +44(0)118 971 3822   

Email: info@brimpton-airfield.co.uk  Website creation by Alan McNeal & Associates  www.amav.biz

Obituary:  Captain John Fairey

An accident to one of Brimpton’s Percival Provost T1 aircraft in Lincolnshire in July 2009 tragically took the life of the pilot, Captain John Fairey.  John was a good friend to all at Brimpton Airfield and his loss has left everyone in shock and dismay.  He was a true gentleman of the old school, a very fine pilot and a thoroughly nice chap.

He was the second son of Sir Richard Fairey, who in 1915 founded the Fairey Aviation Company, later to be famous for such widely differing aircraft as the 100mph biplane Swordfish “Stringbag” torpedo bomber of wartime immortality, and the Mach 2 Fairey Delta 2 in which, in 1956, Peter Twiss raised the world airspeed record from 822mph to 1,132mph.

John spent his whole life in aviation as an airline pilot, military pilot in the Rhodesian Air Force, flying instructor, air taxi pilot and had vast experience of flying vintage aircraft types including the Spitfire.   He was born in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, in 1935. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he gained his private pilot’s licence on seaplanes in Canada, and was subsequently trained on Chipmunks and Harvards with the Cambridge University Air Squadron. He flew for a number of airlines, beginning with Cambrian Airways for whom he flew piston-engined DC3s, the turboprop Vickers Viscount and the airline’s first jet, the BAC1-11 on European routes.

He retired in 2000 but continued to be busy on display flying with vintage aircraft, having first taken to the display circuit with the Spitfire trainer G-AIDN, with which he thrilled crowds. Selling this, he then organised the construction of a replica of the remarkable Fairey Flycatcher biplane which had seen service with the Fleet Air Arm from 1923 to 1935. Other aircraft he displayed were the Provost trainer and the Saab Safir four-seat cabin monoplane, in each of which his grace and precision showed the aircraft off to their best advantage.

A Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, John Fairey was also a vice-president of the Historic Aircraft Association. He was a staunch supporter of the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, Somerset, where his Flycatcher replica is displayed with other products of the “family firm”, including the Swordfish and the FD2.

He is survived by his second wife, Beverley, and by a daughter.  Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to them.

Captain John Fairey

John with Polly Vacher at Brimpton

John displays a Provost at Brimpton in 2000