Avions Fairey Fox

Avions Fairey was set up in Belgium as an offshoot of the Fairey Aviation Company of Britain. The production facility was initially created for the local production of the Fairey Firefly, to which the facilities were later used for production of the Fairey Fox aircraft. Production models were accepted for use by the RAF with later models adapted for service by Belgium air forces with total production amounting to just 176 examples.

The Fox was an inter-war design, characterized by the biplane wing layout, its open-air cockpit and the fixed landing gear. The first models were made available by 1933 and featured a crew of two. The pilot sat in the forward cockpit just under and behind the top wing assembly while the gunner/observer sat in the rear cockpit. Armament consisted of twin 7.62mm FN-Browning type machine guns mounted to either side of the forward fuselage with a third 7.62mm machine gun made available to the rear gunner.

By all accounts, the design was sound and proved excellent even though the production numbers do not reflect this fact. Avions Fairey Foxes were used in the valiant, yet hopeless, defense of Belgium soil against the Nazi scourge of the late 1930's. The systems were wholly outclassed by their German rivals in every respect though and, at any length, the Fox's design was naturally moving on as more advanced aerial fighting machines were on the horizon.

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