Kolibear and PPrune Pop
I was a Fairey Aviation apprentice from late 47 to Dec 51. The apprentice school was at Heston and I used to cycle to work every day fom Hayes. Faireys didn't have a very big presence, but The Heston Aircraft company were there and were producing the Heston AOP, a twin boom job with a rear mounted pusher
piston engine mounted between the booms. I think they only built one or maybe two airframes and it never came to a firm order. It used to cruise round over Faireys main factory at Hayes at around 1500 ft. making a noise like a buzz saw and flew very slowly. The apprentice school then (around 1948) moved to Hayes. All our final assembly of the Firefly was completed at White Waltham. During my time we were making the Firefly and Gannet and the Experimental Dept was producing the Gyrodyne, and if my memory serves me right, the Rotordyne. That gorgeous FD2 came later, but my failing memory tells me that was done at Manchester.
Every lunchtime it was on the bikes down the road for a quick half hour at LHR taking pics of Lancastrians, Yorks and Tudors as well as Lincolns on ferry to Argentina. I still have the pics of most of the aircraft of BSAA that disappeared in the Carribean.
In those days you could wander all over the maintenance area on the East side. Anyway I digress. Happy Days. So Heston definitely north east of LHR.