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Hawker-Siddeley

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Hawker-Siddeley Group Ltd <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; padding: 16px 0 16px 0;"></td></tr>
Fate Merged with British Aircraft Corporation and Scottish Aviation.
<tr><th style="text-align:right;">Successor</th><td>British Aerospace</td></tr>
Founded 1934 (as Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Co.)
Defunct 29 April, 1977
Location

<tr><th style="text-align:right;">Industry</th><td>Aerospace</td></tr>

Hawker-Siddeley was a group of UK aircraft manufacturing companies formed as a result of the merger of Hawker Aircraft with Armstrong Siddeley. The resulting company combined the legacies of several well-known British aircraft manufacturers. It emerged as one of only two major manufacturers in the 1960s, eventually being merged into British Aerospace (BAe) in 1977. BAe sold their corporate jet product line to Raytheon in 1993, and, today, Raytheon manufactures a line of Hawker business jets in the United States.

Contents

[edit] Hawker Engineering

Hawker-Siddeley had its roots in the aftermath of the First World War following restructuring/bankruptcy of the Sopwith Aviation Company. The Sopwith Aviation Company test pilot Harry Hawker and three others (including Thomas Sopwith), bought the assets of the Sopwith Aviation Company and formed H.G. Hawker Engineering late in 1920.

Between the wars, Hawker produced a successful line of bombers and fighters for the Royal Air Force. These included the Hawker Hind and the Hawker Hart, which became the most produced UK airplane in the years before the Second World War.

[edit] Hawker Aircraft Ltd

Renamed in 1933 to Hawker Aircraft Limited, the company took advantage of the Great Depression and the company's strong financial position to purchase Gloster Aircraft in 1934. The next year it formed an association with a series of UK aviation companies including: Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, Armstrong Siddeley Motors, A.V. Roe and Air Training Services. This group of companies was renamed Hawker-Siddeley in 1935.

During the Second World War, the Hawker-Siddeley company was one the United Kingdom's most important aviation concerns, producing numerous designs including the famous Hawker Hurricane fighter plane that, along with the Supermarine Spitfire, was instrumental in winning the Battle of Britain. (during the Battle, Hawker Hurricanes in service outnumbered all other British fighters combined, and were responsible for shooting down 55 percent of all enemy aircraft destroyed).

Almost every Hawker Aircraft design of the Second World War was a success (even if not initially), mainly attributable to the design genius of Sidney Camm (later Sir Sidney) and his team .

Designs included:

[edit] Hawker Siddeley Group

In 1945, the Hawker Siddeley Group numbered four aviation manufacturers:

  • Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft
  • A.V. Roe and Company (Avro UK)
  • Gloster Aircraft Company
  • Hawker Aircraft Limited

Hawker Siddeley Group designs in the Hawker-Siddeley stable included the Gloster Meteor, the first Allied jet fighter, and one of the world's most outstanding post war jet aircraft, the Hawker Hunter, which set a world speed record of 728 mph in 1953.

In the late 1950s, the British government decided that with the decreasing number of aircraft contracts being offered, it was better to merge the existing companies, of which there were about 15 surviving at this point, into several much larger firms. Out of this decision, came the "order" that all future contracts being offered had to include agreements to merge companies.

Hawker and de Havilland merged in 1959, followed by Blackburn Aircraft, Avro (U.K), A.V. Roe Canada (commonly known as Avro Canada) and Whitworth (already part of Hawker), Folland and Gloster over the next year, forming the makeup of the Hawker Siddeley Group in the late 1950s. In 1961, the group bought Hands (Letchworth) Limited particularly for its specialist Hands Trailers division. Meanwhile, a similar set of mergers in aircraft production led to the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Westland (covering helicopters) with engine manufacture down to two concerns: Bristol-Siddeley and Rolls-Royce - the latter to take over the other in mid-1960s. In 1973, HS acquired South Wales Switchgear, which retained the HS name after 1992.

In this period, the company developed the first operational, and, by far, the most successful VTOL jet aircraft, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. This aircraft remained in production into the 1990s and service beyond the millennium.

Among the other aircraft built by the Hawker-Siddeley Group were:

[edit] A.V. Roe Canada

In 1945, the Hawker Siddeley Group purchased Victory Aircraft of Malton, Ontario, Canada from the Canadian government, renaming the company, A.V. Roe Canada. The new company, commonly known as Avro Canada was a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK-based Hawker-Siddeley Group. Avro Aircraft (Canada), their first (and, at the time, only) division, started operations in the former Victory plants. Later, the Orenda Engines division was operated as a separate company (today, as Orenda Aerospace the only survivor of the original company), joining a far-flung A.V. Roe Canada empire of 44 companies involved in coal, steel, railway and rolling stock, aircraft and aeroengine manufacture- even computers and electronics. In 1958, the companies generated annual sales in the $450 million range, ranking A.V. Roe Canada as the third largest corporation in Canada.

Avro Canada first turned to the repair and servicing of a number of WWII-era aircraft, including the Avro Lancasters which had been manufactured at Victory Aircraft as the Mk X. However, the company embarked on an ambitious design program with a jet engine and a jet-powered fighter and airliner on the drawing boards. The Avro Canada C102 was the world's second jet transport aircraft to fly on 10 August 1949, scarcely 13 days after that of the De Havilland Comet's first test hops. The first major jet engine project was the Orenda jet engine in 1949, followed by the Avro Canada's landmark design for Canada's first jet-powered fighter, the CF-100 Canuck, flying in 1950. A total of 692 CF-100s of different variants (including 53 aircraft serving with the Belgium Air Force), were produced with small numbers serving in the ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) role until 1981.

Need for a newer and much more powerful, supersonic interceptor was clear even before the CF-100 entered service leading to the sophisticated CF-105 Avro Arrow project. The "Black Friday" 1959 cancellation of the Avro Arrow and its accompanying Orenda Iroquois jet engine by the Canadian government resulted in massive layoffs. At the time, the company was still primarily an aviation firm. Downsizing and an attempt to diversify led to A.V. Roe Canada engineers, technicians and factory employees redeployed on marine, rail, truck and automobile projects.

In 1962, Hawker-Siddeley, formerly dissolved A.V. Roe Canada and transferred the remaining aircraft manufacturing and engine plants to the newly-formed Hawker-Siddeley Canada company. The former Avro plant was sold to de Havilland Canada in the same year. The former Avro factory (located on the north end of Toronto Pearson International Airport) was later operated by Douglas Aircraft, McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing before being demolished in 2005. Hawker-Siddeley Canada has since dissolved after divesting itself of almost everything other than the pension fund by the late 1990s.

Orenda Aerospace, as part of the Magellan Aerospace Corporation, is the only remaining original company from the A.V. Roe Canada era, although greatly diminished in size and scope of operations. Hawker-Siddeley Canada Inc, was a heavy rail manufacturer based in Mississauga and plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The rights to the rail operations were sold to Bombardier Transportation. Hawker-Siddeley Canada also manufactured aircraft engines under Avro Canada's Orenda Engines subsidiary.

[edit] End of Hawker Siddeley

On 29 April 1977, as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, the Hawker-Siddeley Group was nationalised and merged with the BAC and Scottish Aviation to form BAe.

Several Hawker entities were later spun-off or sold by BAe, including:

Image:Hurricane.r4118.ground.arp.jpg

[edit] Hawker and Hawker Siddeley Aircraft

[edit] As Hawker

[edit] As Hawker-Siddeley

[edit] Hawker Siddeley today

The Hawker Siddeley name was retained by one company, a HS firm, Aberdare Holdings (formerly South Wales Switchgear). The UK-based firm was renamed Hawker Siddeley Switchgear in 1992. With their Australian unit, Hawker Siddeley Switchgear Australia Pty. Ltd., HSS are makers of medium voltage switchgear. Another company which retains the name is Hawker Siddeley Power Transformers.

[edit] Clients

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Mason, Francis K. Hawker Aircraft since 1920. London: Putnam, 1991. ISBN 0-85177-839-9
  • Molson, K. M. and Taylor, H.A. Canadian Aircraft since 1909. Toronto: Putnam, 1982. ISBN 0-920002-11-0.

[edit] See also

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