Ernest Oscar Tips

Last updated
Ernest Oscar Tips
Born2 October 1893
Tielrode
Died10 March 1978
Brussels
Known forAvions Fairey

Ernest Oscar Tips (born 2 October 1893 in Tielrode - deceased 10 March 1978 in Brussels) was a Belgian aircraft designer. [1] He co-founded the Fairey Aviation Company in 1915 and its Belgian subsidiary Avions Fairey in 1931.

Contents

Biography

Early days

The Tips brothers introducing the valve-less motors at the 1913 Salon de l'Automobile. Tips6.jpg
The Tips brothers introducing the valve-less motors at the 1913 Salon de l'Automobile.

Born in Tielrode near Temse in 1893, the youngest of 13 children. His family was active in building mechanical systems such as bicycles. He studied at the Institut St Willebrord, but moved to Brussels at 14 years old to live with his brother after his father had died. [1]

E.O. Tips was already building aircraft ("avion Canard") in 1908, with his brother Maurice. In 1909, they had built a biplane with a rotor. Together, they acquired the licence of the Gnome engine for Belgium and the Netherlands. [2] [1]

He fled Belgium at the outbreak of World War I, arriving in England via the (neutral) Netherlands.He learned aeronautical engineering at Short Brothers, and was the first employee of the newly established Fairey Aviation Company that he cofounded in Hayes, Middlesex. In 1917, he released the ship-borne Campania. [2] He was a close friend to Dick Fairey and the Fairey family. [3]

He gained British pilot's license RAC-UK 5904 on May 6, 1918. [1]

Avions Fairey

In 1931, he returned to Belgium to create Fairey's Belgian subsidiary Avions Fairey at the Gosselies airfield. Avions Fairey stands at the cornerstone of Belgium's development of its modern aeronautic industry, the government of Belgium had to negotiate with its UK counterpart to develop the Fairey operations in the flat land. [1] Avions Fairey was created in September 1931 (or 1928 [4] ) when its UK headquarters sold 25 Firefly II to the Belgian army. [3]

Fernand Jacquet joined the company. In 1933, he assembled the first Tipsy S, powered by a Douglas Sprite 16HP. 19 units of the following model, the S2, were sold. The Tipsy M was a hit and its conception was close to those of modern fighters. [2] [1]

Approaching World War II, E.O. Tips organized the company's evacuation to the UK through Saint-Nazaire, France. Tips lost the company's supply at sea, but managed to reach the UK where he held a managing position (Chief Experimental Engineer and Chief Research Engineer of the new helicopter department) at Fairey Aviation. When he returned to Gosselies after the war, the airfield and its buildings had been destroyed. By 1946, E.O. Tips and the team completed the reconstruction of the Gosselies Fairey airfield. [2]

After the war, Tips' two sons joined the company. In 1946, they designed the Tipsy Junior. E.O. Tips he designed the Tipsy Belfair, which held the record for longest distance flight in 1950 (945 km for a -500 kg aircraft) and 1955 (2632 km, same category). In 1953, Avions Fairey received an order of 256 fuselages for the Dutch and Belgian Air Force (as part of the industrial "hunter Program"). [2]

In 1955, he became affiliated with the Vieilles Tiges de Belgique. [1]

In 1957, E.O. Tips launched his last aircraft model, the Tipsy Nipper, a light one-seat aircraft that E.O. Tips compared to the "Volkswagen of planes". 62 Tipsy Nipper were produced before E.O. Tips sold the engineering rights when he retired in March 1960. [2] [1]

Vieilles Tiges de Belgique

From 1968 to 1975, he managed Vieilles Tiges de Belgique (vice-President from 1969 to 1972). [1]

He died in his home on 10 March 1978. [1]

Designs

Further reading

Places named after him

Related Research Articles

Charleroi City in Hainaut, Belgium.

Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,462 square kilometres (564 sq mi) with a total population of 522,522 by 1 January 2008, ranking it as the 5th most populous in Belgium after Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Ghent. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos.

SABCA

SABCA is a Belgian aerospace company. Its main sectors of activity are civil aviation, space and defence.

Fairey Aviation Company 1915-1977 aerospace and engineering company

The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Lancashire. Notable for the design of a number of important military aircraft, including the Fairey III family, the Swordfish, Firefly, and Gannet, it had a strong presence in the supply of naval aircraft, and also built bombers for the RAF.

Fairey Fox

The Fairey Fox was a British light bomber and fighter biplane of the 1920s and 1930s. It was originally produced in Britain for the RAF, but continued in production and use in Belgium long after it was retired in Britain.

Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander Utility transport aircraft series by Britten-Norman

The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial aircraft types produced in Europe. Although designed in the 1960s, over 750 are still in service with commercial operators around the world. The aircraft is also used by the British Army and police forces in the United Kingdom and is a light transport with over 30 military aviation operators around the world.

Brussels South Charleroi Airport

Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), also unofficially called Brussels-Charleroi Airport, Charleroi Airport or rarely Gosselies Airport, is an international airport, located in Gosselies, a part of the city of Charleroi in the Province of Hainaut in Wallonia, Belgium. The airport is 4 nautical miles north of Charleroi and 46 km (29 mi) south of central Brussels. In terms of passengers and aircraft movements, it is the second busiest airport in Belgium having served 7,303,720 passengers in 2016. It is also a busy general aviation airfield, being home to 3 flying schools.

Tipsy Nipper

The Tipsy Nipper T.66 is an aerobatic light aircraft, developed in 1952 by Ernest Oscar Tips of Avions Fairey at Gosselies in Belgium. It was designed to be easy to fly, cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. It was designed for both factory production and homebuild. "Nipper" was the nickname of Ernest Tips' first grandchild.

Walter Mikron

The Walter Mikron is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted straight engine for aircraft.

Avions Fairey Belfair

The Avions Fairey Belfair, also known as the Tipsy Belfair after its designer, Ernest Oscar Tips, was a two-seat light aircraft built in Belgium following World War II.

Avions Fairey was the Belgian-based subsidiary of the British Fairey Aviation that built aircraft for the Belgian government. It subsequently separated from the UK parent and became SONACA.

Avions Fairey Junior

The Avions Fairey Junior, also known as the Tipsy Junior was a single-seat light aircraft built in Belgium following World War II.

Fairey Fantôme

The Fairey Fantôme, also known as the Fairey Féroce, was a British fighter prototype of the mid-1930s. The prototype was designed and built by Fairey Aviation and three production aircraft were assembled in Belgium by Avions Fairey.

Fairey Primer

The Fairey Primer was a production version of the Avions Fairey Tipsy M tandem seat single-engined basic trainer. Two production aircraft were completed in the late 1940s.

Tipsy B

The Tipsy B was a small sports two-seat monoplane designed by Ernest Oscar Tips, and built in both Belgium and the UK. A total of 42 was built, and a few are still flying.

Tipsy S.2

The Tipsy S.2 was the production version of the Tipsy S, a single seat, low wing sports monoplane designed by Ernest Oscar Tips in Belgium in the mid-1930s. It was produced in both the Belgium and the UK.

The Sonaca Group is a Belgian aerospace company. It has subsidiaries in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Romania and Sri Lanka. In 2018, the Sonaca Group's operating revenues amounted to $900 million. The Sonaca Group consists of 4,630 workers. 92.604% of the company is owned by SRIW S.A., 7.393% is owned by SFPI S.A. and 0.003% is owned by SABCA S.A.

2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers

On 6 August 2016, a man attacked two policewomen with a machete in Charleroi, Belgium, before being shot dead by another police officer.

Ursmer Berlière, born Alfred Berlière (1861–1932) was a monk of Maredsous Abbey and a monastic historian whose bibliography ran to 360 publications.

5th Squadron (Belgium)

The 5th squadron is a training squadron which, together with the 9th squadron, forms the Basic Flying Training School of the Belgian Air Component.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Les Vieilles Tiges - Ernest-Oscar Tips, figure de proue de la construction aéronautique belge". Vieillestiges.be. 1955-07-22. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Duwelz, Yves (2 April 2013). "Avions Fairey Gosselies". Belgian Wings. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  3. 1 2 Smith, Adrian (2018-04-30). The Man Who Built the Swordfish: The Life of Sir Richard Fairey, 1887-1956. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   9781838609498.
  4. 1 2 Ellin, Alex (August 2013). "Les avions Tipsy Airlines" (PDF). Afterburner Book Reviews. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  5. ↑ "Rue Ernest-Oscar Tips - streets of Charleroi, Walloon Region, Belgium". Maps-streetview.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.