Fairey already had a number of Belgians in key roles in the company; Ernest Oscar Tips and Marcel Lobelle had joined during the First World War.
Tipsy series was successful and licence rights for production were sold in the UK and South Africa.
Their ship was sunk by German bombers outside St Nazaire and eight Fairey staff were killed; the survivors worked for the parent company during the Second World War.
After the war, Avions Fairey restarted at Gosselies airfield near Charleroi by servicing C-47 Skytrains of the Air Force; this was then extended to other aircraft.
Avions Fairey returned to production as a joint venture with Fokker to build Gloster Meteor jet fighters: 240 were built between the companies for the Dutch and Belgian air forces.
In 1953, Avions Fairey was contracted to produce 256 Hawker Hunter fuselages for the Dutch and Belgian air Force.
Avions Fairey continued in service contracts and, in conjunction with SABCA, built Lockheed F-104 Starfighters under licence from 1962.