Foster Dixon and other Fairey Test Pilots
 

The names Dixon, Staniland, Evans, Smith and others are names that i have heard mentioned many times bu my father over the years.

His fathar William (Bill) Fry worked for Fairey from the early 1920s until he was made redundant when they moved out of Heston to White Waltham. He worked at the Great West Aerodrome from its opening to the closure. I believe that he was in charge of flight testing during the war and was based in the large hanger behind the original one. As such he would have worked with Dixon and the other pilots on a daily basis and was lucky enough to have been flown as a passenger on several occasions.

My father started at Fairey's GWA in August 1943 when he left school and stayed there until he started his apprenticeship as a joiner. He too knew most of the pilots and also flew as a passenger with Dixon during at least one of Charles E Brown photo sorties and also to Boscombe Down on one occasion in the company's Reliant Stinson, spending time at the controls.

I was wondering if the pilots log books for Dixon and Staniland still exist and also if there are any wartime time photos of them at Fairey. I have seen many pre-war photos of the aerodrome but very few taken during the war.