Fairey Primer

The Fairey Primer was a tandem-seat, single-engine basic trainer, a postwar production version of the Tipsy M designed in the 1930s by Ernest Oscar Tips at Fairey's Belgian subsidiary, Avions Fairey. It was a low-wing monoplane of welded steel tube with fabric covering, enclosed dual-control cockpits and manual flaps, powered by a 145 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major or a 155 hp Blackburn Cirrus Major. The single Belgian Tipsy M became the prototype, and Fairey built two production aircraft, the first airworthy in October 1948, out of a planned ten. One was assessed against the de Havilland Chipmunk at Boscombe Down, and the line ended in 1951.