Remembering Hawker Aircraft: Britain’s Most Popular Aircraft Manufacturer

Famous for producing the likes of the Hurricane, Tempest, Sea Hawk, Harrier and Sea Fury, Hawker Aircraft was one of the largest aircraft manufacturers of its time, famous for almost solely producing military aircraft.

Despite the death of their co-founder and namesake, Harry Hawker, on July 12 1921 – less than a year after Hawker Aircraft was established, his death fueled the company to push the limits of our technology further to produce better aircraft.

Indeed, at one point in the 1930’s, Hawker-made aircraft were so good that they accounted for over 84% of the aircraft in the RAF’s fleet!

Pre-Hawker Aircraft: Sopwith Aviation Company

Having had an interest in aviation since he saw John Moisant fly the world’s first cross-Channel passenger flight, Thomas Sopwith soon taught himself how to fly with his Howard Wright Avis monoplane.

In his early twenties Sopwith hoped to make a name for himself as an aviator. To do this, he chose to break the world record for the fastest flight between England and the Continent, which he did on December 18 1910, flying 169 mi (272 km) in three hours and 40 minutes.

For his efforts, Thomas won £4000 (roughly £500,000 adjusted for inflation) and set up the Sopwith School of Flying in Brooklands.

Eventually, with the help of his close friend and aviation engineer, Fred Sigrist, and other backers, Thomas Sopwith established the Sopwith Aviation Company in June 1912 and began designing and building their own designs.

Needing employees to help them do this, Sopwith employed a young Australian as a mechanic, before eventually teaching him how to fly. This Australian was Harry Hawker, and soon became Sopwith’s chief test pilot from 1916 onwards.

In their early days, Sopwith’s designs were mostly re-engineered aircraft built by other companies or seaplanes built with the help of other companies. By WWII, however, they began designing their own aircraft for the war effort.

During the war, Sopwith expanded from only a few employees before the war to 5,000 at its height, producing vital WWI fighters like the Sopwith Camel, Pup and Snipe, all of which helped change the course of the war.

Alas, when the war ended in 1918, and military contracts dried out, Sopwith tried to diversify. Whilst perceived as a smart business move at the time, this used up the remains of the company’s money before they could bring anything back in.

Not surprisingly, the Sopwith Aviation Company became defunct in 1920.

Foundation & Early Years

Almost immediately after Sopwith collapsed, Harry Hawker, together with Thomas Sopwith and Fred Sigrist, formed H. G. Hawker Engineering, each contributing £5,000 (roughly £230,000 adjusted for inflation) towards the new company.

Founded a few months after Sopwith’s collapse and dissolution, the newly formed company hoped to acquire Sopwith’s assets, including its patents and unbuilt designs, which it was successful in doing. They even hired some of their old Sopwith colleagues too!

Wasting no time, H. G. Hawker Engineering started producing its own designs. Under the leadership of Captain Thomas, then the company’s chief designer, the company unveiled the Hawker Duiker reconnaissance aircraft in July 1923.

Although only one was ever built, it was one of the most advanced aircraft in the world at the time, and people took notice. In a world where most aircraft were biplanes, the Duiker was a monoplane, whilst most of the rest of the aircraft was proprietary.

That same year, the company unveiled its first Hawker-branded fighter: the Hawker Woodcock.

Initially rejected by the RAF, the Woodcock was redesigned and test flights impressed RAF higher-ups so much that 64 were later built – quite a feat for a fighter in the early interwar period! Indeed, it was so good it was even used by the Danish military.

Aside from there first two aircraft, 1923 also saw another major thing for H. G. Engineering – the arrival of senior draughtsman Sydney Camm. Whilst they didn’t know it then, Camm was going to make the Hawker name world-famous!

Expansion

Camm’s first job was to develop the Hawker Cygnet, an ultralight biplane designed to be a racer. Successful, only one was built (as that’s how many were needed) and it’s still around today, being on display at RAF Museum, Cosford.

Following the introduction of the Cygnet in 1924, H. G. Hawker Engineering introduced the Horsely bomber in 1925, along with several other designs that never went beyond the prototype phase (such as the Heron and Hornbill).

In 1928, the company revealed arguably its most important design yet, the Hawker Hart.

Designed by Sydney Camm, the Hart was originally meant for the RAF, but eventually proved so good it was developed into several other aircraft, including a navalized variant for the RAF. Although obsolete, the Hart actually saw service in WWII!

Aside from the Hart, Sydney Camm and H. G. Hawker Engineering also built the Hawker Tomtit in 1928. Initially for the RAF, they chose the Avro Tutor over the Tomtit, prompting Hawker to release the Tomtit as a personal aircraft, where it sold 35 times.

In 1930, using their experience with the Hart, Sydney Camm and the rest of Hawker designed and built the Nimrod for the Royal Navy, which similarly proved incredibly popular, being built 92 times and used by four militaries.

Later, it was developed into other aircraft too!

Having been known by it informally for years, H. G. Hawker Engineering officially changed its name to Hawker Aircraft (officially, Hawker Aircraft Limited) in 1934.

Armstrong Siddeley Acquisition

The following year, and with the Great Depression wreaking havoc on most industries, the newly renamed Hawker Aircraft acquired the Gloster Aircraft Company whose designs had often competed against Hawker’s, sometimes winning, sometimes not.

However, the company refused to merge Gloster’s operations into its own, as they understood the Gloster name was more established than Hawker’s, and that having two sister companies competing for the same contract actually increased their odds of winning it.

After all, regardless of whether Gloster or Hawker Aircraft built it, the money ended up in Hawker’s hand. As such, it was kept as a fully independent subsidiary from 1934 onwards.

In 1935, Hawker Aircraft approached an elderly John Davenport Siddeley (better known as “J. D. Siddeley”) about acquiring Amstrong Siddeley and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. After months of negotiations, Siddeley and Hawker came to an agreement.

For £1 million (around £73 million adjusted for inflation) Hawker Aircraft would acquire both of Siddeley’s companies. All three companies then merged to form Hawker Siddeley, with the continuation of the “Siddeley” name being one of J. D.’s conditions as a part of the deal.

Much like they had done when Hawker acquired Gloster, Hawker Siddeley kept Hawker (now merged with Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft), Armstrong Siddeley and Gloster all as separate companies, with Gloster remaining as a subsidiary of Hawker Aircraft.

Still wanting to expand, Hawker Siddeley also acquired A. V. Roe & Company (often known as just “Avro”) the following year.

WWII

In the years leading up to the war, Hawker Aircraft had Sydney Camm develop several brand new monoplane fighters for the RAF and Royal Navy. In 1935, Camm’s Hurricane design had its first flight, followed by the Tornado in 1939.

As such, when Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939, the RAF had squadrons of Hurricanes ready for combat. The Tornado, on the other hand, was still being evaluated.

Though unsuccessful, a variant of the Tornado became the Hawker Typhoon, which first flew in February 1940 and entered service in September 1941.

The following year, Camm and Hawker developed the Typhoon into the Tempest, which first flew in September 1942 and entered service with the RAF in 1944.

A further development of the Typhoon/Tempest, known as the Fury, first flew in September 1944, whilst a naval variant, known as the Sea Fury, first flew in February 1945. Both entered service in August and September 1947 respectively.

And for most of the war, this is what Hawker was doing – producing newer and better aircraft for the British (and the Allies as a whole) as well as developing newer variants of pre-existing aircraft like the Hurricane.

Designed to be superior to their German counterparts, the Hurricane, Typhoon and Tempest, all became vital to the Allies’ success during the war, with the Hurricane being immortalized for its central role during the Battle of Britain (even if the Spitfire tends to get most of the credit!)

Entering The Jet Age

During the war, Hawker’s Gloster Aircraft subsidiary had designed and built their Meteor design, which became the Allies’ first (and only) jet aircraft to see combat during the war.

Spending most of the war focusing on producing more Hurricanes, Typhoons and Tempests, as well as newer variants of them, Hawker finally began developing their own fighter jet designs in late 1944.

Once again, Sydney Camm was tasked with creating a jet-powered fighter capable of replacing the WWII-era Sea Furies. Spending much of 1945 and 1946 designing this new jet, Camm eventually came up with the P.1035.

However, the P.1035 had to be redesigned to accommodate a change in the Royal Navy’s needs, leading to the P.1040, which eventually became the Hawker Sea Hawk. A prototype was completed in 1947, and the jet had its first flight on September 2 that year.

After many test flights and modifications, the Sea Hawk entered service with the Royal Navy in March 1953, just as the Sea Fury was being retired.

Whilst designing the Sea Hawk, the RAF had approached Hawker Aircraft about procuring a new fighter jet, where Camm offered them a land-based variant of the Sea Hawk prototype, which they refused, prompting Camm to start designing a brand new aircraft.

Development of the jet commenced in 1946, with Hawker having a workable design by 1950. The prototype first flew on July 20 1951 and entered service in 1954 as the Hawker Hunter.

Hawker Harrier

Now well into the Cold War, military higher-ups began to plan for the very real possibility of an all-out war with the Soviets. In particular, they began planning how they could win a conventional war if the Soviets attacked mainland Britain.

What they came up with was that if the Soviets were going to attack the British mainland, their first port of call would be to attack military targets such as air bases, bombing their runways to put them out of commission and prevent a British counter-attack.

Realizing this, the higher-ups became interested in the concept of V/STOL, or vertical/short takeoff and landing, then under development at Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, the Bristol Engine Company, who were designing the aircraft and engines respectively.

In 1957, Sydney Camm and Ralph Hooper began developing what they called the Hawker P.1127.

Though sub-sonic (in a time when aircraft were getting faster and faster), Camm and Hooper reasoned that as long as it could takeoff from completely or partially destroyed runways and was formidable, its speed (or lack thereof) wouldn’t be a problem.

Working hard during the late 1950’s, Camm and Hooper eventually had not only a working design, but a working prototype. This prototype, still with the P.1127 designation, first flew on November 19 1960.

Development of a heavily upgraded variant of the P.1127, known as the Hawker Kestrel (later the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel), began in 1961, with development being completed by early 1964.

After its first test flight on March 7 1964 and a few minor modifications, the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel entered service as the Hawker Siddeley Harrier on April 1 1969.

Interestingly, this would be the last aircraft Sydney Camm would design that would enter service. However, Camm wouldn’t live to see the Harrier enter service as he died March 12 1966 at the age of 72.

Absorption Into Hawker Siddeley

Having been a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley since 1934, Hawker Aircraft had benefitted from Hawker Siddeley’s money and cross-company expertise which played a huge role in Hawker entering the jet age after WWII.

That being said, in the late 1950’s, a British government mandate stated that there were too many independent aircraft manufacturers in the country, and that to survive (and better compete with American aircraft manufacturers), they needed to consolidate into a few firms.

Already the owners of several aircraft brands, Hawker Siddeley had enough money to begin acquiring more of Hawker’s competitors, such as Folland, de Havilland and Bristol Aircraft, without having to worry about the government intervening.

Initially operating the Folland, de Havilland and Bristol Aircraft brands as separate subsidiaries just like they did with its Hawker, Avro and Gloster subsidiaries, a corporate reshuffle in 1963 saw all of its subsidiaries be absorbed into Hawker Siddeley.

With that, the names of Hawker, Avro, de Havilland, Gloster and Folland aircraft still in development lost their previous designations (eg. Hawker P.1127, DH.121 etc.) and were given new Hawker Siddeley designations (eg. Hawker Siddeley Kestrel, Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident etc.)

The former operations of Hawker Aircraft lived on as Hawker Siddeley until 1977, when Parliament passed the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977.

Essentially, this act nationalized Hawker Siddeley, Scottish Aviation and British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), and merged them into one new state-owned company called British Aerospace, or BAe for short.

Hawker Aircraft Today

Today, very little of the once-mighty Hawker Aircraft actually remains.

In 1980, British Aerospace was privatized by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 19 years later, in 1999, British Aerospace merged with Marconi Electronic Systems to form BAE Systems.

Whilst aircraft production is only a tiny part of their business, a lot of it is derived from what was formerly Hawker Aircraft (and by extension, the old Hawker Siddeley).

Beyond that, the Hawker name lives on in a line of business jets.

In June 1993, BAe sold their corporate jet division, which at that time only produced the famed BAe 125 line (previously built by Hawker Siddeley), to Raytheon for $390 million.

With this, the latest variant of the BAe 125, the BAe 125-800, was given the marketing name “Hawker 800“. Likewise, the larger BAe 125-1000 was renamed the Hawker 1000 to allude to the jet’s Hawker Aircraft/Hawker Siddeley “ancestry” if you will.

In 1994, Raytheon merged BAe Corporate Jets (now Raytheon Corporate Jets) and Beechcraft (who they’d acquired in 1980), into a single company. In 2001, Raytheon unveiled a brand new jet, known as the Hawker 4000,

Raytheon later sold it to a consortium led by Goldman Sachs and Onex Corporation in 2006, who renamed the company Hawker Beechcraft, once again subtly hinting to its Hawker Aircraft/Hawker Siddeley corporate “ancestry”.

Legacy

Whilst it hasn’t existed since 1963, Hawker Aircraft’s legacy can still be felt to this day, impacting almost every aspect of the military aviation industry – more than you’d probably realize…

Aviation Industry

Unlike many of its competitors who often hired pre-trained draughtsmen and engineers, Hawker often hired people off the street and taught them from scratch. Not only was this cheaper for Hawker, but it also produced them higher-quality designs at a quicker pace.

Many of these Hawker-trained draughtsmen and engineers later left Hawker for other companies, where they designed some of the best aircraft produced by Hawker’s competitors. Interestingly, all of them worked under the legendary Sydney Camm…

Among these people are Stuart Davies, who joined Hawker in 1931 and left for Avro in 1936, where he converted their unsuccessful Manchester twin-engine bomber into the famed Lancaster and later served as chief designer of the Avro Vulcan.

Another is Frederick Page, who joined Hawker in 1938 and worked on their Typhoon and Tempest aircraft, before leaving for English Electric in 1945. He was then appointed as chief stressman for the English Electric Lightning, and later, the BAC TSR-2.

Interestingly, Frederick Page later became CEO of Hawker/Hawker Siddeley’s successor, British Aerospace (BAe) from 1977 until 1982, and was knighted in 1979 for his efforts!

Future Aircraft

Beyond training draughtsmen and engineers that would eventually go on to produce some of the most important aircraft in British aviation history, the aircraft that Hawker themselves produced were similarly quite important.

In 1957, Hawker began development of the Hawker P.1127. It was their engineers who did most of the heavy lifting before it became the Kestrel, and later the Harrier – a jet that’s still in today (albeit a vastly upgraded variant).

Plus, the names of Hawker’s WWII-era Tornado, Typhoon and Tempest fighters have all influenced the names of newer fighters employed by the RAF, including the Panavia Tornado, Eurofighter Typhoon and BAE Systems Tempest (currently under development).

Intriguingly, Hawker built the Typhoon as a replacement for the Tornado, whilst the Tempest was built as a replacement for the Typhoon.

Likewise, in modern times, the Eurofighter Typhoon has replaced the Panavia Tornado, whilst the BAE Systems Tempest is designed to replace the Typhoon (as it’s a sixth generation fighter).

What’s even more interesting is that this has been done deliberately – showing that even today, the influence of Hawker’s aircraft can still be felt!

Do you remember Hawker Aircraft? What about Hawker Siddeley? What was the best aircraft they made? Tell me in the comments!

Featured image courtesy of Airwolfhound via Flickr.