The Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne is an experimental British rotorcraft that used single lifting rotor and a tractor propeller mounted on the tip of the starboard stub wing to provide both propulsion and anti-torque reaction.

Though preliminary work started on the project, it was abandoned with the outbreak of the Second World War, and G & J Weir, Ltd., the financiers of the Cierva Autogiro Company, declined to undertake further development in addition to their successful experiments with the W.5 and W.6 lateral twin-rotor helicopters.

[2] On 28 June 1948, flown by test pilot Basil Arkell, the Gyrodyne made two flights in each direction over a low-altitude 2-mile-long (3.2 km) course at White Waltham, achieving 124 mph (200 km/h), enough to secure the record.

An attempt was to be made in April 1949 to set a 62 mi (100 km) closed-circuit record, but two days before the date selected a poorly machined flapping link in the rotor hub failed during flight and resulted in the crash of the aircraft at Ufton, near Reading, killing the pilot, Foster H. Dixon and observer, Derek Garraway.

The Gyrodyne had been selected for use by the British Army for use in Malaya, beating both the Westland S.51 Dragonfly (a licence-built Sikorsky design) and the Bristol 171 Sycamore, with an order for six approved by the Treasury at the time of the accident.