History:

In the 1920s Sherman Fairchild was involved in the business of aerial photography and survey work, and found the aircraft available at the time not meeting his requirements. He obtained premises at Farmingdale, Long Island, New York where, in 1926, he commenced development of the Model FC-1, a braced high-wing monoplane with a 67 kw (90 hp) Curtiss OX-5 engine. The cabin accommodated a pilot and one or two passengers. It was later fitted with a 149 kw (200 hp) Wright J-4 Whirlwind radial engine, becoming the FC-1A.

The aircraft was developed and put into production in 1927 as the FC-2, with a larger cabin to accommodate a pilot and four passengers, and was fitted with a Curtiss C-6 Challenger engine. One FC-2W2 was lengthened by 0.66 m (2 ft 2 in) and had accommodation for a pilot and six passengers; and one example, named ‘Stars and Stripes’, was used by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition in 1928.

The FC-2 series entered production on 1 June 1927 and when it concluded in January 1928, 56 aircraft had been delivered. The FC-2W was similar to the standard FC-2 and in its basic form was a five-seat monoplane with wings that could be folded and was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine of 336 kw (450 hp). It was used extensively in Canada for “bush flying” where its carrying capacity came to the fore; and it was said, if the load was too big to go in the aircraft, it was strapped to the side of the fuselage.

Type Certificate was issued in December 1927. Production took place at the Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing Corporation at Farmingdale, a division of the Fairchild Aviation Corporation.

One example of an FC-2W1 NC4770 (c/n 28 – named ‘Celotex’) was shipped from New York to Australia to be operated in New Guinea in March 1928. It was flown by Richard Peck for the Bureau of Plant Industry, part of the United States Department of Agriculture, on an expedition by Dr E W Brandes to find new varieties of sugar cane. The aircraft arrived on board ‘SS Athol’ in Sydney on 30 May and was shipped to Samarai on the ‘SS Montoro’ where the wheels were replaced by floats. It was flown to Port Moresby on 17 June and a base was established on the Strickland River.

On 24 August it was flown direct across New Guinea at 4,267 m (14,000 ft) on instruments to a base on the Sepik River. It saw extensive service, making 57 flights into the Fly and Sepik Rivers. In 1929 an article appeared in the American magazine, ‘National Geographic’, relating to the expedition and its findings. Afterwards it was shipped back to the USA via Sydney, NSW in September that year. The Fairchild later had the registrations G-CAIQ and CF-AOU but was written off at Hull in Quebec, Canada on 11 October 1931 after an accident.