Ernest Oscar Tips

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

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.

[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.

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.

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.

In 1953, Avions Fairey received an order of 256 fuselages for the Dutch and Belgian Air Force (as part of the industrial "hunter Program").