Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Dynamics E-Book

Stephen Skinner

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 573

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Hawker Siddeley's history can be traced back to 1912 and the formation of the Sopwith Aviation Company by Tom Sopwith which metamorphosed into Hawker Aircraft after World War One. In 1934-35, Gloster, Avro, Armstrong Siddeley, Armstrong Whitworth and others were taken over to create the Hawker Siddeley Group. The Group built some of the most important aircraft and missiles of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond; its best-known products included the Harrier, Buccaneer, Nimrod and Hawk warplanes, Sea Dart missile and HS748 airliner. Its collaborative projects included the European Airbus and various satellite programmes. Hawker Siddeley was subsumed into British Aerospace in 1977, but some of its products still remain in service to this day. This is their story. Illustrated with over 400 colour and black & white photographs, many of them previously unpublished.

Leseprobe

Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Dynamics

1960–77

Stephen Skinner

The Crowood Press

First published in 2014 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

© Stephen Skinner 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 740 3

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace and credit illustration copyright holders. If you own the copyright to an image appearing in this e-book and have not been credited, please contact the publisher, who will be pleased to add a credit in any future edition.

Frontispiece: Hawk T.1. XV247. The Hawker Siddeley Hawk first flew in 1974 and is still in production by BAE Systems at its Brough and Warton plants. (BAE Systems)

Acknowledgements

There are many people and organizations I wish to thank for the assistance they have given me in the writing of this history.

I would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their help: Barry Guess and Trevor Friend of BAE Systems Archives at Farnborough; Peter Hotham and his colleagues at BAE Systems Archives at Brough; George Jencks et al: Avro Heritage Centre; Ray Williams at the Armstrong Whitworth Collection; Chris Farara of the Hawker Archive; Jeremy Close, Director of Communications & CSR, Astrium and Nikki Standing, Astrium; Brian Riddle of the National Aerospace Library at Farnborough; the RAF Museum Archives; Alistair Scott, President of the British Interplanetary Society; Gary Noone of MBDA; Mike Phipp; Derek Ferguson; and Ken Haynes.

I should like to note the assistance and excellent service provided by the Hertfordshire Public Library Service and the speedy provision of books available from its wide catalogue, especially when such services are under threat in the UK.

My special thanks are rightly reserved for the continued enthusiasm, support and editorial help that my wife Jane provided throughout the writing of this book.

Contents

Preface

1

HAWKER SIDDELEY FROM 1910 UNTIL THE END OF THE 1950s

2

HAWKER SIDDELEY FROM 1960 TO NATIONALIZATION

3

LEGACY MILITARY AIRCRAFT PROGRAMMES

4

LEGACY CIVIL AIRCRAFT PROGRAMMES

5

FROM THE ARGOSY TO THE HAWKER SIDDELEY 681

6

HAWKER SIDDELEY’S BESTSELLER – THE 748

7

AIRLINERS AT HATFIELD – FROM TRIDENT TO 146

8

EXECUTIVE JET SUCCESS – THE HAWKER SIDDELEY 125

9

AIRBUS – FROM PARTNER TO SUBCONTRACTOR

10

AVRO CANADA TO DE HAVILLAND CANADA

11

SPACE AND MISSILES – HAWKER SIDDELEY DYNAMICS

12

VULCANS AND VICTORS AT WOODFORD

13

BUCCANEERS AND PHANTOMS AT BROUGH

14

VERTICAL HAWKERS

15

THE MIGHTY HUNTER – NIMROD

16

HAWK!

Conclusion

Appendix

I

The Top Men of Hawker Siddeley

Appendix

II

High Duty Alloys

Appendix

III

Bristol Siddeley

Appendix

IV

Hawker Siddeley Group Major Activities in 1969

Bibliography and Notes

Index

Preface

The inspiration for writing this book arose quite naturally as it is a companion title to my British Aircraft Corporation – A History (Crowood, 2012). Although Hawker Siddeley and BAC were very different groupings, they were the predominant UK aerospace manufacturers from 1960 until nationalization in 1977. Hawker Siddeley was the greater of the two as it had become a Group in 1935 and was already the largest aviation company in the UK and Europe. Yet today many aviation enthusiasts remain unaware of this British company’s significance, and regard enterprises such as Avro and Hawker as being wholly separate entities when this was far from the case. The firms within the Hawker Siddeley Group did maintain a high level of autonomy until the late 1950s, but they were not independent and were wholly owned by the Group. In order to set the record straight I felt compelled to write a history of Hawker Siddeley and give the company its due worth.

The book begins with an overview of the firm’s background from its beginning until 1960 and then goes on to make a detailed examination of the period between the company’s takeover of Folland, de Havilland and Blackburn in 1959–60 until its nationalization as part of British Aerospace in 1977.

All the aircraft types that fell under the aegis of the Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Dynamics umbrella in 1960 have been described, so this book embraces older types such as the Hunter and Comet as well as the Blue Streak missile and satellite launcher. I have written in more depth about those projects begun post-1960 and have continued the history of those aircraft and weapons beyond nationalization in 1977.

The Sopwith Aviation Company’s Canbury Park Rd premises in Kingston, Surrey; aircraft manufactured here were taken by road to Brooklands to fly. The extensive Hawker Siddeley Group grew from these small premises. BAE Systems

Until only a short time ago Hawker Siddeley Dominies, Harriers and Nimrods were all flying with the Royal Air Force until they were felled in the 2010 Strategic Defence Review, leaving only the Hawk still serving and in production. Harriers fly with several foreign forces and many variants of the 125 executive jet still grace the skies.

Hawker Siddeley was not only concerned with aerospace, but began diversifying in the 1950s into other forms of engineering such as diesel engines, electrical engineering, agricultural and forestry equipment, power stations, sewerage works, and locomotive and railway carriage manufacture. Generally these non-aerospace interests made greater profits than the aerospace divisions. The Group continued its policy of diversification and this enabled it to remain in existence well after the nationalization of its aircraft and dynamics divisions, until it was taken over in 1991.

CHAPTER ONE

Hawker Siddeley from 1910 until the End of the 1950s

Beginnings

In September 1910 Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwit (seeAppendix I) visited Brooklands Airfield in Surrey, paid £5 and was taken for a sedate cruise of two circuits of the airfield in a Henri Farman biplane. From that moment, Sopwith decided he was going to be a pilot. He began by buying a little Howard Wright Avis monoplane though, as there were no dual controls, he would just have to get into the thing and teach himself to fly. It was not only the aviator’s, but also the machine’s, maiden flight. After a few runs he guided the machine into the air and, after two or three hundred yards, he rose suddenly to forty feet and for a moment looked like he was going to fall backwards, so steep was the angle. Fortunately he righted the plane, but in landing he came down sideways, smashing the propeller and chassis, and damaging one wing.

Undaunted, Sopwith sought new worlds to conquer. The next month he bought a bigger Howard Wright biplane for £630; on 26 November he flew it 107 miles (172km) in 3 hours 20 minutes to establish British distance and duration records – and this within a week or so of qualifying for his aviator’s certificate. He then competed for the £4,000 Baron de Forest prize for the longest non-stop flight from anywhere in England to anywhere on the Continent. On the morning of 18 December 1910 he took off from Eastchurch, in Sheppey. His compass went unserviceable, so he steered by the sun until it was hidden by cloud and then carried on by instinct. As he crossed the Belgian frontier the wind became so gusty that he was nearly thrown out of his aircraft; soon it became too strong to make headway, and he landed in a field near Beaumont. He had flown in a straight line for 169 miles (272km) and was declared winner.

The early years of the century saw the beginnings of British flying. Others whose firms were to become part of the Hawker Siddeley Group were making their first flights at this time. A.V. Roe (later Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe) made a short hop at Brooklands in 1907, and Geoffrey de Havilland (later Sir Geoffrey) was experimenting at Newbury with a biplane built in a shed off Fulham Palace Road. In 1912 he was designer-pilot to the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, where he produced the famous BE biplane. Associated with him at the Factory was Harry Folland, who later joined Hawker Siddeley as designer for Gloster Aircraft and later formed Folland Aircraft, which itself joined the Group in 1959. Bob Blackburn, too, was flying a monoplane on Filey sands in 1909.

Tom Sopwith’s 1910 Howard Wright biplane. Author’s collection

Sopwith Aviation Company

Sopwith established an aircraft firm of his own at the end of 1912. Fred Sigrist, who had been employed in 1910 as an engineer on Sopwith’s yacht, was soon helping adapt and design aircraft. A year later the Sopwith Aviation Company Ltd was formed. About this time a young Australian, Harry Hawker, came to England to study flying and went to Brooklands, where Sopwith taught him to fly: he had a natural flair so soon took over the test flying. Thereafter, the driving force behind the Sopwith Company in producing the famous line of Sopwith aircraft in World War One was the triumvirate of Sopwith as salesman and promoter, Sigrist controlling production, and Hawker designing and flying. As the firm expanded Sopwith invested money in proportion, so maintaining control of it.

The first Sopwith aeroplane, the Sopwith-Wright, was built in a disused skating rink at Kingston-on-Thames. It had an openwork fuselage for pilot and passenger, wings copied from Sopwith’s Wright, and was powered by the 70hp Gnome from the Blériot. Eventually it was bought by the Admiralty – the first of many thousands of Sopwith aircraft for the Services.

The Sopwith Aviation Company logo. BAE Systems

The Sopwith Triplane, one of Sopwith’s successful World War One fighter designs. BAE Systems

World War One gave the Sopwith Company its big chance. Seven different aircraft types were ready for immediate service and were snapped up by the Royal Naval Air Service. But it was the subsequent series of fighters that brought fame and fortune to the firm. First came a two-seater fighter-bomber known as the 1½ Strutter, then a line of single seaters: the Pup, Camel, Triplane and others, finishing with the Snipe, which remained in service with the RAF for many years after the war.

At the beginning of the War two other figures entered the aircraft industry who were to hold major roles in the years ahead: Tom Sopwith employed Frank Spriggs to help with the books, while A.V. Roe employed Frank Dobson; both these men were to have a major influence in the years ahead (seeAppendix I).

When peace came the Sopwith Company carried on for a year or so. They built the Atlantic biplane in which Harry Hawker and his navigator, Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve, attempted the first direct crossing of the Atlantic in May 1919. Forced down, they were rescued in mid-Atlantic after being missing for a week and given up for lost.

Sopwith Snipe and Salamander production at Richmond Road, Ham, Kingston. BAE Systems

Hawker

By 1920, with no orders for aircraft in hand and threatened with a demand from the government to pay substantial Excess War Profits Duty, Sopwith told his board they must wind up the company while still solvent. But soon afterwards a new firm was formed, named H.G. Hawker Engineering after Harry, both as a tribute to his work as test pilot during the war and to avoid confusion with the former Sopwith company. Hawker Engineering took over Sopwith’s patent rights and support for Sopwith aircraft in the RAF. The original directors were Tom Sopwith, Harry Hawker, Fred Sigrist and Bill Eyre.

Harry Hawker. Author’s collection

The Hawker Hurricane prototype K5083 at Brooklands, which made its maiden flight on 6 November 1935. BAE Systems

The intention was to keep Hawker a small firm, making aircraft whenever there was a demand and keeping going the rest of the time by making motorcycles and other things. This plan fell by the wayside, however, and it blossomed over the years to become Hawker Siddeley Group, comprising about a half of the entire British aircraft industry and becoming the largest aerospace group in Europe by the 1960s.

The first aeroplane built by the Hawker firm was a military monoplane, the Duiker. But Harry did not live to see it fly: before it was ready he was killed testing a Nieuport Goshawk at Hendon. Thereafter the Hawker firm built many aircraft for the RAF, from the Woodcock fighter to the big Horsley bomber. The latter was the first military aircraft to be developed by Sir Sidney Camm, who joined the firm in 1922 and was destined to become Chief Engineer of Hawker Aircraft. During the 1930s the mainstays of the RAF’s fighter and bomber strength were Camm’s Harts and Furies.

In 1934 Camm produced his masterpiece, the Hurricane. Hawker directors, inspired by Tom Sopwith, saw they had a winner and laid down a production line even before they had an Air Ministry order. This decision was a key factor in the Battle of Britain, in which more Hurricanes took part than any other fighter.

Avro Anson G-AGPG. Though the Anson dated back to the 1930s, this one only flew after the war, in August 1945. It was used as an Avro/Hawker Siddeley communications aircraft for many years; in 1969 it was sold to Pye Telecom and received a new nose to accommodate radar. BAE Systems

The Formation of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Ltd

The British aircraft industry consisted of about twenty aircraft and aero-engine manufacturers until 1928, when Vickers acquired control of Supermarine. This set the pattern for future mergers in that Vickers let Supermarine carry on as a separate entity until 1957: so it was to be with firms in the Hawker Siddeley Group until 1960.

After World War One, many other aircraft firms ran into financial trouble. Alliott Verdon Roe had to sell a majority holding in Avro to Crossley Motors in 1920, but by 1928 Crossley’s car-manufacturing business was in serious trouble so Avro was sold to Sir John Siddeley. He was the owner of the Armstrong Siddeley Development Company, which also owned Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, Armstrong Siddeley Motors and High Duty Alloys (seeAppendix II). Roe and his closest associates then decided to join forces with Sam Saunders of Cowes to build flying boats, and formed Saunders-Roe. Meanwhile, in May 1934 Hawker Aircraft – as H.G. Hawker Engineering had become the previous year – bought the Gloster Aircraft Co., which enabled Hawker to double its production potential and provided extra finance for Gloster to continue independent design and construction.

On 25 June 1935 the Armstrong Siddeley Development Company was purchased by a newly formed company, Hawker Siddeley Aircraft under the chairmanship of Tom Sopwith. All that weekend Sopwith had carried around a cheque for £1m (= £60m in 2013), awaiting the call from Sir John Siddeley to clinch the deal.

Avro Lancaster production at the Chadderton plant in June 1944. BAE Systems

Britain’s first jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39 powered by a Whittle jet engine, which made its maiden flight at Cranwell on 15 May 1941. A second E.28/39 crashed. W4041 is preserved at the Science Museum in London. BAE Systems

After the merger, Tom Sopwith was less concerned with daily affairs and more engrossed in business strategy, while Frank Spriggs was Managing Director. Hawker Siddeley remained an association of eight firms, each with a separate identity though with tight financial control from the centre. These firms were: Avro, A.W. Hawksley (a manufacturer of aircraft during wartime and prefabricated housing post-war), Air Service Training (training pilots and engineers and aircraft repair and conversion), Armstrong Siddeley Motors (making aeroengines and cars), Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, Gloster Aircraft, Hawker Aircraft and High Duty Alloys. In November 1937 the firm’s capital was doubled to £4m and it thus became the largest aeronautical business in the world.

The Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Company at War

At the outbreak of war, the Avro Anson was in quantity production as a general reconnaissance aircraft, and development of the twin-engined Avro Manchester bomber was under way. Owing to its unreliable Rolls-Royce Vulture engines the Manchester was not a success, but it was developed to the superb four-engined Lancaster, of which 7,374 were built. Its York transport derivative mated the same wings and tail, plus a central fin, with an entirely new fuselage seating twelve passengers. The Lincoln bomber was built as a replacement for the Lancaster, entering RAF service soon after VJ Day. Armstrong Whitworth, which had been producing the Whitley bomber at the start of the war, assisted Avro with Lancaster and Lincoln manufacture.

During the war Hawker produced Hurricanes, which bore the brunt of the Battle of Britain and were still in use at D-Day in 1944 when production ended. Its descendants, the Typhoon and Tempest, became ground attack aircraft and fighter, respectively. Hurricane production reached a peak of one every four hours during the critical period in the autumn of 1940.

At the outbreak of war the Gloster Gladiator biplane fighter was still in production, but Hurricanes and Typhoons were constructed in increasing numbers. Practically all the Typhoons were produced by Gloster. It was the Gloster company which was entrusted with the task of building, in association with jet engine pioneer Frank Whittle, Britain’s first jet aircraft, the E.28/39, which flew in May 1941. The E.28/39 led to the Gloster Meteor, the first practical jet fighter with offensive armament and an appreciable range, which broke the world speed record in both 1945 and 1946.

Armstrong Siddeley Motors played a major part in the war effort and Air Service Training undertook management of specialized centres in the training of no fewer than 40,000 pupils as pilots and supernumeraries.

This map of England indicates all the Hawker Siddeley plants involved in the war effort in 1944. There were the main groupings of Hawker Siddeley factories at Yeadon, Manchester, Coventry, Gloucester, Langley, Kingston and Hamble. The numbers indicate the number of factories involved in each place. The other places were not company-owned. Note the ten-fold increase in aircraft production from 1938–44. Author’s collection

The wartime Hawker Siddeley logo referring to all of the firms that were owned by the Group. Author’s collection

Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Post-War

From 1948 Hawker Siddeley was formally called a Group, but this indicated very little and the companies wholly owned by it continued to function with significant autonomy. The management style of the Chairman, Tom Sopwith, was very ‘hands off’ – even in the 1930s he had rarely been seen, though he chaired the Board meetings and quarterly meetings of the Chief Designers. With the success of Hawker Siddeley he had become a very wealthy man, and received a knighthood in 1953. He spent some winters in South Africa, and spent time during the summer at his castle and estate at Amhuinnsuidhe on the Isle of Harris, which he owned from 1944–61. (Jimmy Orrell, Avro’s chief test pilot, would collect Sir Thomas and Lady Phyllis Sopwith from Chilbolton near the Sopwiths’ Manor House in King’s Somborne, Hampshire, and fly them to Stornaway in Avro’s ‘hack’ Anson, G-AGPG.)

Although production contracts were slashed with the end of hostilities, the technological advances made in the war such as the introduction of the jet engine and the fruits of German aeronautical research stimulated new designs. Immediately after the war, Armstrong Whitworth and Avro produced airliners, but neither the former’s Apollo nor the latter’s Tudor were a success, the Apollo never even going into production, so Hawker Siddeley decided to concentrate its resources on military aircraft and weapons. This policy continued until the late 1950s, when it became clear that there would be fewer military orders, so the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy civil freighter and Avro 748 airliner were put into production.

In the post-war years Avro produced two contrasting major military aircraft, one a conservative design and the other at the cutting edge of development. These were the Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft, a final development of Avro’s large wartime piston-engined bombers, and contrastingly the world’s first four-jet delta-winged aircraft, the Vulcan bomber.

Gloster continued to build and export large numbers of Meteors, passing development and production of the night fighter variant to Armstrong Whitworth. Hawker enjoyed considerable success both at home and with export orders for its Sea Hawk and, in particular, Hunter fighters, to the extent that production of the Sea Hawk also had to be passed to Armstrong Whitworth. Gloster followed Avro with the delta wing on its large Javelin fighter, which was designed to follow on from the Meteor but failed to echo its predecessor’s success and was only ordered by the RAF.

Hawker Siddeley – employment, deliveries and wages during World War Two1

Wartime statistics

1939–40

1943–44

Total 1939–45

Employees – male

29,700

56,600

n/a

Employees – female

4,000

35,400

n/a

Deliveries of aircraft

3,362

8,795

40,089

Deliveries of aero-engines

4,378

7,763

38,564

Productive output

£37.0m

£123.5m

£507.5m (= £18.5bn 2013)

Wages

£9.4m

£26.5m

£123.2m

A 1948 advertisement showing the major aircraft and engines built by Hawker Siddeley and its predecessors since the Avro 504 and the Sopwith Camel, including the Hart, Gladiator, Lancaster and the Meteor. Author’s collection

Gloster Meteor F.8 WA820 fitted with Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire engines, which made four time-to-altitude records from Moreton Valence in August 1951. F.8s were made in greater numbers than any other mark of Meteor. Almost 4,000 Meteors were made. Ray Williams

The Group’s newly formed Canadian subsidiary, Avro Canada, had quickly established itself as a major player in the aviation world by producing the world’s second jet airliner, which was only just beaten into the air by the De Havilland Comet, and followed it with the large CF-100 jet fighter. Their designers then produced the supersonic CF-105 Arrow fighter, which was regrettably cancelled by the Canadian Government in 1959, crippling Avro Canada.

Aero Engines, Missiles and Training

Armstrong Siddeley’s range of piston aero engines was gradually superseded and replaced by the Sapphire turbojet, which competed with Rolls-Royce Avon to become the UK’s dominant turbojet. The Sapphire had to settle for a strong second place and powered the Javelin, and some marks of the Handley Page Victor, English Electric Canberra and Hawker Hunter. It was also licence-built in the USA for the Martin B-57, itself a licence-built Canberra. Armstrong Siddeley was unable to challenge the lead Rolls-Royce had established in the turboprop market with the Dart, but its small Viper jet was very successful, powering a wide range of aircraft including the Jet Provost trainer and its Strikemaster development, the Italian Aermacchi MB-326 trainer and early marks of the Hawker Siddeley 125 executive jet. Its Gamma rocket powered the Saunders-Roe Black Knight, and the Stentor rocket was installed in the Avro Blue Steel stand-off bomb carried by the Vulcans and Victors of the RAF.

Hawker Siddeley companies only started development of guided missiles in the 1950s. Avro was contracted to produce Blue Steel, which had a troubled development through the 1950s but eventually saw service with Bomber Command during the 1960s until the nuclear deterrent was passed to the Royal Navy. Indicating the wastefulness of autonomy, its sister company Armstrong Whitworth developed the Navy’s first anti-aircraft missile, the Seaslug, both teams working in isolation.

Air Service Training at Hamble continued with its flying, navigation, radio and engineering schools at a reduced scale postwar. Seventy per cent of its students were from overseas, and it operated technical training schools in India and Pakistan for their respective air forces. Air Service Training was also engaged in aircraft design, repair and modification; it carried out a number of conversions of Lancasters and Lincolns to become engine test beds, and designed the trainer version of the Javelin, the T.3.

Hawker Siddeley at Twenty-One

At the Hawker Siddeley Group’s twenty-first annual general meeting in 1957 the Chairman, Sir Thomas Sopwith, made special reference to the achievements of the past twenty-one years. During that period, he said, the Group’s companies had produced over 44,000 aircraft, including 13,000 Hurricanes, more than 8,000 Ansons, 5,000 Lancasters and over 3,500 Meteors.

Sir Thomas said that the largest single factor in the growth of the Group was Avro Canada – formed in 1945 with only 300 employees – which had in the previous eleven years become one of Canada’s major industrial enterprises, employing some 20,000 people. Avro Canada was seen as a strategic foothold in the lucrative American military and civil aircraft market.

The Group had had another satisfactory year’s trading, both in the UK and in Canada, and its profits for the year 1956–57 amounted to £12.8m before taxation, compared with £12.7m the previous year. Of this 1956–57 profit, over £6m was contributed by Canadian members of the Group.

Burgeoning Hunter wing production at Kingston in 1954. BAE Systems

An Avro Canada CF-100 for the RCAF. Avro Canada had speedily established itself as the predominant aircraft manufacturer in Canada. However, the company collapsed when its later CF-105 was cancelled. Author’s collection

The 1957 Defence White Paper and Rationalization

The 1957 Defence White Paper produced by Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Defence, envisaged missiles as providing the method of both attack and defence for the UK, though no timescale for their introduction was indicated. All future fighter aircraft programmes bar the English Electric Lightning would cease and the industry would need to concentrate on guided weapons. The Hawker Siddeley Group board debated the ramifications of this and considered withdrawing from any new investment in aviation to concentrate on its non-aviation interests, but Sir Tom Sopwith unequivocally decided that the firm would remain in aviation and would have to invest more itself.

Despite the axing of most manned aircraft projects by the White Paper there was one specification still in hand, for a bomber to replace the Canberra: Operational Requirement OR339, which later became OR343 and led to the TSR2 aircraft. The Government made it plain that this contract would only be awarded to a consortium of firms. Though Hawker Siddeley already existed as a consortium, the individual firms guarded their autonomy jealously and despite the Government’s ruling, Avro, Gloster and Hawker all separately offered proposals for OR339. Eventually Sopwith and Spriggs forced these firms to put forward a sole group proposal based on the Hawker offering.

Management Reshuffle

In June 1958, in a boardroom coup caused by growing friction between Sir Roy Dobson (seeAppendix I) and Sir Frank Spriggs, Sir Tom Sopwith asked Spriggs to leave, which he did that day with what was then the UK record payoff of £75,000 (£1.52m at 2013 prices). In a press release Sir Tom praised Sir Frank for his forty-four years of service to the firm, and when interviewed the latter amicably maintained it was time for him to retire. Dobson took over Sprigg’s role as Group Managing Director.

An Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire jet engine, which was a rival to the Rolls-Royce Avon and powered not only British types but also the Martin B-57, an American licence-built version of the Canberra. Author

In 1957, as part of its programme of diversification, Hawker Siddeley bought Brush Traction, which manufactured railway locomotives. HS4000, named Kestrel, was a prototype high-power mainline diesel locomotive built by Brush in 1967. It had a power rating of 4,000hp. It is seen at Barrow Hill in 1971. Author

Sir Arnold Hall, (seeAppendix I) who had joined the Group as Technical Director in 1955, proposed a close-knit operation very different from the loose federation that existed under Spriggs. Though Spriggs was on the Board of each subsidiary, he had allowed the companies to compete against each other, as exemplified by three Group companies offering proposals for OR339. Sopwith now favoured a more central control and knew that Dobson would tighten the Group’s structure.

Tighter Control and Diversification

Following the multiple OR339 proposals, all designs had to be considered by Hawker Siddeley Design Council before receiving the go-ahead. The Council was headed by Sir Roy Dobson with representatives of all the Group’s aircraft companies, including Armstrong Siddeley and High Duty Alloys. As part of their role the Council visited and held discussions with ‘movers and shakers’ in their business, not only in the UK but also worldwide.

To direct operations more strategically in 1959 the Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Hawker Siddeley Industries Divisions were formed. These became necessary as, mindful of the future and the need for diversification, from the early 1950s Hawker Siddeley had been buying firms outside the aviation business. These were quickly added to with the establishment in 1955 of Hawker Siddeley Nuclear Power and two years later the purchase of the Brush Group, which itself included several engineering firms. In Canada Sir Roy Dobson vigorously pursued the same policy, and by 1956 a total of forty-four companies were held within the Avro Canada subsidiary (later Hawker Siddeley Canada). Thirty-three of these had been acquired with the takeover of the Dominion Steel and Coal conglomerate, which included various steel mills, coal mines and manufacturing plants, as well as Halifax Shipyards.

‘The Twelfth Largest Industrial Concern outside the USA’

CHAPTER TWO

Hawker Siddeley from 1960 to Nationalization

Takeovers

The Government had made it plain in an official statement of policy in May 1958 that it sought a rationalized aircraft industry and would refuse aid to any firm that stood out from this. The industry was slow to react so, even though the Government had no legal power to force them to merge, in mid-December 1959 Duncan Sandys – who had become Minister of Aviation the previous October – informed the industry chiefs that there was only room for two major aviation manufacturers and that they alone would be eligible for Government aid.

De Havilland Merges with Hawker Siddeley

De Havilland had been engaged in talks with Vickers and English Electric (which had already agreed to merge their aviation interests to eventually form the British Aircraft Corporation) from July 1959, but in late November withdrew from these, much to the displeasure of Duncan Sandys. He informed de Havilland’s Chairman, Sir Aubrey Burke, that de Havilland would receive no Government support henceforward. Throughout November de Havilland had been arguing that the Airco grouping established with Fairey and Hunting to build the DH121 airliner (which became the Hawker Siddeley Trident) could be the basis for a third grouping in British aviation, but this was rejected by the Minister.

Vickers-Armstrongs and English Electric pondered a hostile bid for de Havilland with the support of the Minister, but on 17 December the boards of Hawker Siddeley and de Havilland announced that they had agreed to recommend a merger of the two companies; Hawker Siddeley was offering to buy de Havilland’s share capital for £14.2m.

Clearly matters were now moving very quickly, as only two days earlier Sir Aubrey Burke had reported to the de Havilland board about the situation with Vickers and English Electric, and about informal conversations he had held with Hawker Siddeley’s Managing Director, Sir Roy Dobson. The de Havilland board decided that they could not remain independent and authorized their chairman to open negotiations with Hawker Siddeley. They accepted that if de Havilland merged with Hawker Siddeley, then de Havilland Engines could join Bristol Siddeley Engines and de Havilland Propellers would be associated with Armstrong Whitworth’s missile division. The Board minutes stated that

The aim would be to ensure sufficient DH representation on the new parent board and in the management of the new company. It was agreed that the merger with Hawker Siddeley represented a greater possibility of DH continuing as an entity than on any other basis.

Negotiations

Following discussions between Sir Aubrey Burke and Sir Roy Dobson on 18 December 1959, the new structure was noted down. There would be a Hawker Siddeley Group Board with Sir Tom Sopwith as Chairman, Sir Roy Dobson as Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, and Sir Aubrey Burke as Deputy Managing Director. There would be two subsidiaries: Hawker de Havilland with Sir Aubrey Burke as Chairman/Chief Executive, dealing with all aviation interests; and Hawker Siddeley Industries for non-aviation interests.

However, at a meeting between the interested parties on 6 January, that previously agreed new structure was appreciably altered. Sir Roy Dobson said that some of the matters he had agreed to in the hurried negotiations with de Havilland had now been deemed to be unacceptable to his Hawker Siddeley and Blackburn colleagues (Blackburn was also merging with the Group, as outlined below). Sir Aubrey Burke would be Deputy Managing Director of the Group Board, and there would be one additional de Havilland Group Board member and one from Blackburn. The Aviation subsidiary would have Dobson as Chairman and Burke as Deputy Chairman, plus other Directors. Sir Aubrey Burke had wanted the Aviation subsidiary to be called Hawker de Havilland, but Sir Tom Sopwith and Sir Roy Dobson refused to consider it. Sir Aubrey Jones reported all this to the de Havilland board at a special meeting the following day. They were dismayed by this and considered abandoning the merger, but then decided to invite Sopwith and Dobson to Hatfield to discuss the matter further; that discussion never happened, but eventually the de Havilland board accepted it.

In mid-January 1960, Hawker Siddeley sent out the prospectus for the purchase of the de Havilland and Blackburn shares to the company’s shareholders. It stated ‘It is the intention that the de Havilland companies will, as part of Hawker Siddeley, continue to enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy and independence.’

Blackburn Joins the Group

Like de Havilland, Blackburn Aircraft knew that it could not continue to maintain its independence within the British aircraft industry. The Vickers-English Electric grouping – which was to become BAC – had little interest in Blackburn, so Blackburn’s directors opened talks with Hawker Siddeley, where they felt they could maintain some autonomy as other companies such as Avro had. Unaware of the negotiations taking place with de Havilland, in early December Hawker Siddeley’s bid for the ownership of the Blackburn Group was accepted. When the Blackburn management heard of the de Havilland merger, they realized that they would now have even less influence within the Group.

By May 1960 purchase of de Havilland and Blackburn shares had been finalized, and the two companies began to feel the effect of being part of Hawker Siddeley. Blackburn’s Dumbarton factory was sold in June, and in October Sir Roy Dobson became Chairman of Blackburn. At the same time Dobson announced that all companies within the Group would now need to submit budgets to the Group Board for capital expenditure in 1961. Smaller items, if urgent, might be approved by the local Boards for approval by the parent Board.

A Hawker Siddeley diagram indicating when the various companies became part of the Group. BAE Systems

An Argosy promoting its car transporter credentials at Bitteswell. The three Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires arrayed in front of it were produced at the Armstrong Siddeley factory in Coventry. Ray Williams

Other Possible Merger Targets – Bristol and Handley Page

The Group had little interest in Bristol Aircraft, which was in a sorry state, its factories empty, with no prospect of work apart from the Supersonic Transport – later Concorde – project. Hawker Siddeley would have taken over the design team and closed the site had it bought the firm. In the event, Bristol Aircraft had no choice other than to join Vickers-Armstrongs and English Electric as a minority partner as part of BAC.

There was a number of meetings between Hawker Siddeley and Handley Page, but Sir Frederick Handley Page never agreed to a merger. In his talks with Hawker Siddeley in 1960, Sir Frederick asked for 16/- per share when the market price was 13/-; Hawker Siddeley offered 10/-, which he turned down. At this point the Government cancelled twenty-eight Handley Page Victor B.2 bombers, so Hawker Siddeley reduced their offer to about 8/- when the shares were trading at 10/-. Then the RAF selected the Handley Page Herald rather than the Avro 748 for a military freighter contract, but the Government would not pay Handley Page its full Victor contract cancellation claim, and the merger talks collapsed. Next Hawker Siddeley offered 5/-; this was rejected and, with no prospect of a merger, the Government cancelled the Herald order and ordered a version of the 748 in 1962. Handley Page Aircraft struggled on for another eight years, but then went into receivership.2

The Expanding Group

With its purchase of Folland, Blackburn and de Havilland, Hawker Siddeley had greatly increased its aviation, aero-engine and missile interests, and the number of employees and sites under its control. These acquisitions strengthened its predominance in the UK military aircraft market, as it now produced the Folland Gnat with its potential as a trainer for the RAF, and the de Havilland Sea Vixen fighter and Blackburn Buccaneer bomber for the Royal Navy.

Hawker Siddeley had been weak in the civil airliner market, and in 1960 only had the new Avro 748 feeder airliner and Armstrong Whitworth Argosy freighter, which it had funded entirely from its own resources. However, it now inherited the large de Havilland range of civil airliners, though three of these were toward the end of their production lives. The small Dove stayed in limited production until 1968, though manufacture of the larger Heron ceased in 1961. More significantly, the de Havilland Comet 4 jet airliner remained in limited production until early 1964. However, already under construction at Hatfield was the first Trident tri-jet airliner, of which high sales were expected. Another bright star on the horizon was the DH125 executive jet, which was to prove its potential and remained in production until 2012.

Though the purchase of Folland brought nothing of significance other than the Gnat, Blackburn had in addition to the Buccaneer a range of small engines, while de Havilland possessed the mighty de Havilland Propellers with its Firestreak and Red Top air-to-air missiles, the Blue Streak rocket and propeller manufacture. The de Havilland Engine Division’s range included rocket, piston and jet engines.

The second prototype Hawker Siddeley 748, G-ARAY, demonstrating its sprightly take-off performance at the 1964 Farnborough Air Show. It was in Queen’s Flight livery but with ‘Hawker Siddeley 748’ titling. Alex Christie

The first Trident, G-ARPA, bearing the colours of BEA as it makes a taxi run prior to its maiden flight on 9 January 1962. BAE Systems

The second prototype HS125 executive jet, G-ARYB, at Hatfield where it made its maiden flight in December 1962. It had a fuselage 1ft (30cm) shorter than that of the standard production model and was fully instrumented for performance testing. BAE Systems

In purchasing de Havilland, Hawker Siddeley also became owners of important overseas aircraft firms, most notably de Havilland Canada, which had grown from wartime manufacture of Mosquitoes to manufacture successful, rugged, indigenous designs: the Chipmunk, Beaver, Otter and Caribou. De Havilland Australia had distinguished itself with a single design, the Drover, which was a cross between a Dove and a Heron.

The thirteenth Buccaneer, XK529, one of the twenty development aircraft. While engaged in catapult launch trials in August 1961 on HMS Hermes, XK529 stalled and crashed into the sea with the loss of the two crew. BAE Systems

Though the Group now had a significant presence in the civil market, the reality was that the profitability of military programmes was in the order of double that of civil aircraft.

The Hawker Siddeley Group at the Beginning of the 1960s

The Hawker Siddeley Group was a mighty combine with sales in 1961 of £320m (at 1961 prices), exports of £34m and a trading profit of £19m. The Group had 101,479 employees, with 31,212 overseas. The founder of the Group, Sir Thomas Sopwith was the Chairman; Sir Roy Dobson was Vice-Chairman and Managing Director while Sir Aubrey Burke was Deputy Managing Director (seeAppendix IV).

An immediate and major problem for the company was the virtual collapse of the innovative Avro Canada with the cancellation of the Avro CF-105 Arrow fighter project and huge redundancies in February 1959. Avro Canada had been bought by Hawker Siddeley Group in 1945 from a shadow factory established during the war and had manufactured successful designs such as the Avro Canada CF-100 fighter. Avro Canada made a loss after tax of £812,000 and was merged with the Group’s other engineering interests, and renamed as Hawker Siddeley Canada. Hawker Siddeley tried to maintain the huge Avro Canada plant at Malton by diversifying into other work, but with little success. In 1962 Sir Roy Dobson sold the virtually empty yet exceedingly well-equipped factory to another subsidiary, de Havilland Canada, for the CDN$12.5m it had in the bank.

Vickers Vanguard G-APEA at Weybridge prior to its first flight. The Vanguard had de Havilland propellers for its Rolls-Royce Tyne engines. Propellers had been a very profitable market, but with the greater use of jet engines demand was falling. BAE Systems

The Blue Streak rocket at the Spadeadam test centre in Cumbria. Blue Streaks were not actually launched from Spadeadam, but were tested there before transport to Woomera in Australia, where they were launched. Author

Some tidying up ensued in the UK: Armstrong Siddeley Motors merged with Bristol Aero-Engines to form Bristol Siddeley Engines in 1959, and abandoned car production (seeAppendix II) Air Service Training at Hamble was sold in 1960. Whitworth Gloster was formed by the merger of Gloster and Armstrong Whitworth in 1961 and, with the end of Javelin production, Gloster’s factories at Hucclecote and Brockworth were closed in mid-1962. De Havilland announced redundancies at Christchurch in November 1961, running up to closure in 1962, and its Portsmouth factory was put up for sale, in August 1961 but only finally closed in 1968.

Tom Sopwith Stands Down as Chairman

In 1963 Sopwith retired as Chairman to become the Group’s President; Sir Roy Dobson stepped into his shoes, with Sir Arnold Hall as Vice-Chairman. That year from sales of £327m the company only made a profit of £5.2m, but almost £9.3m was set aside for Research and Development. Orders in hand at the end at 1962 amounted to £390m, a substantial increase on the previous year-end.

Initial Rationalization, 1960–63

Over the three years following the takeover of Folland, Blackburn and de Havilland the Group had instigated only minor changes to the management of any of its companies: investment decisions were centralized, but each firm still had its own Board. In fact, it seemed much as Tom Sopwith had written in the first edition of Hawker Siddeley News of February 1948:

The Hawker Siddeley Group is a free association of companies teamed together to provide a pool of technical experience, technique, resources and facilities which would be beyond the scope of any individual firm. Each company manages its own affairs entirely, but has behind it the resources and facilities of all the other firms and is able to call upon the research and production resources of the Group.

Sopwith chaired Board meetings and quarterly meetings of Chief Engineers, but other than that he was not a ‘hands-on’ manager.

It is possible that, had Sopwith remained at the helm, major rationalization would not have occurred. As it was, in 1963 the Board under Dobson and Hall set to work to shape their wide range of aircraft and missile assets. For those firms taken over in 1959–60, the loss of their heritage and independence was a mighty shock.

The fifth de Havilland Canada Caribou, temporarily registered CF-LKF-X. It was later delivered to the US Army. BAE Systems

The last Armstrong Siddeley car built was a Star Sapphire used by Sir Arnold Hall as his chauffeur-driven transport from 1960 to 1967. It is now in private ownership. With the merger of Armstrong Siddeley Motors with Bristol Aero-engines in 1959, car manufacture was abandoned in 1960. via Mark Nelson

The Hawker Siddeley logo adopted in 1963. BAE Systems

The Establishment of Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics

With nearly 55,000 employees in the UK concerned with development and production of aircraft, missiles and related equipment, Hawker Siddeley Group’s aviation interests were then the largest in Europe. Its design and production interests spanned a range of aeronautical hardware, varying from the latest ideas in V/STOL strike fighters to space booster vehicles for the first European satellites.

A major reorganization was set in train to rationalize all the Group’s activities. The Board recognized the need to refine and promote its image in line with other large manufacturers, and to reduce administrative overheads by the centralization of back office functions such as marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing policies and so on. On 1 July 1963, the establishment of Hawker Siddeley Aviation (HSA) as the parent body of the many aircraft firms taken over by the Group meant the disappearance of many time-honoured pioneering company names, although most of these were still perpetuated in the titles of the three main divisions within HSA. From that date, all the various aircraft then in production or under development became known as Hawker Siddeley types in order better to communicate the Group’s identity to the world at large. The chairman of Hawker Siddeley Aviation was Sir Arnold Hall, and the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director was John Lidbury.

The former de Havilland headquarters at Hatfield under the HSA banner. BAE Systems

Hawker Siddeley Aviation 1963

Division

Production in 1963

Present status

Avro-Whitworth Division

Baginton, Coventry

Production of Argosy

Closed by HSA 1965

Development of 681

Production of 748 and Vulcan assemblies

Spares

Bitteswell, Leics

Assembly and flight test of Argosy

Closed by BAe 1983

Modification and flight test of other HSA types

Bracebridge Heath, Lincs

Repair and stores

Closed by BAe 1982

Chadderton, Lancs

Production and development of 748,

Andover and Vulcan

Closed by BAE Systems 2012

Shackleton support

Langar, Notts

Repair and stores

Closed by HSA 1968

Whitley, Coventry

Design of HS681

Closed by HSA 1968

Woodford, Cheshire

Assembly and flight test of 748,

Andover and Vulcan

Closed by BAE Systems 2011

de Havilland Division

Chester, Cheshire

Production of Comet, Dove, 125 and Sea Vixen

Now Airbus UK

Hatfield, Herts

Flight test, production and development of Trident

Closed by BAe 1992

Flight test of Comet, 125 and Sea Vixen

Portsmouth, Hants

Production of Trident front fuselages

Closed by HSA 1968

Hawker Blackburn Division

Brough, Yorks

Production and development of Buccaneer

BAE Systems

Dunsfold, Surrey

Assembly and flight test of Gnat and P1127

Closed by BAE Systems 2000

Refurbishment of Hunters

Hamble, Hants

Production of Gnat, Trident tails and wings

GE Aviation Aerostructures

Holme-on-Spalding Moor, Yorks

Flight test of Buccaneer

Closed by BAe 1982

Kingston, Surrey

Production and development of P1127 and P1154

Closed by BAe 1992

Hunter assemblies

Avro Whitworth Division

Avro Whitworth Division encompassed the former factories of Avro and Whitworth Gloster, then employing around 15,000 people. In the Manchester area, Woodford and Chadderton produced the Vulcan B.2, the HS748 and the 748MF, this last a military version of the 748 for the RAF that was later named the Andover. Sets of 748 components were being made for licence production by Hindustan Aeronautics at Kanpur, for the Indian Air Force. In addition, refurbishing work was in hand on Shackletons for RAF Coastal Command, and revising earlier models of the Vulcan to advanced standards. Final assembly of the 748s and Vulcans, together with test flying and some design work, took place at Woodford, Cheshire, which also had wind tunnel and other facilities. The Bracebridge Heath, Lincolnshire and Langar, Nottinghamshire sites carried out overhaul and repair.

At its other main centre, in Coventry, Avro Whitworth had factories and design offices at Baginton, Bitteswell and Whitley; Bitteswell was also engaged in modification and assembly work for other parts of the Group. Argosies were built at Baginton and then transported to Bitteswell for assembly and flight test. With delivery of the RAF’s Argosies due for completion in early 1964 and other sales being very slow, the success of the follow-on project, the Hawker Siddeley 681, was vital for the factories.

De Havilland Division

Further south was the second large component of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, the de Havilland Division. This employed approximately 12,500 people in factories at Hatfield, Chester (Broughton) and Portsmouth, plus a design office at Edgware. The Division was mainly concerned with civil aircraft, although work was continuing on deliveries of its final military design, the Sea Vixen FAW.2 for the Royal Navy from Chester. Also at Chester, production was tapering off of Doves and Comet 4s, with five Comets on the line against potential orders and Doves being produced when required. Hatfield was busy flight testing the Trident tri-jet airliner and developing new versions for export customers. By May 1963 there were firm orders for thirty-six of the 125 executive jet built at Chester, from the batch of sixty that had been authorized by Hawker Siddeley. Fully equipped price to full airline standard was approximately £210,000. The Christchurch factory had closed in mid-1962, but Portsmouth was engaged in forward fuselage manufacture for the Trident.

Hawker Blackburn Division

The third component of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, the Hawker Blackburn Division, comprised five separate and widely distributed factories with 11,500 personnel engaged solely on military production and projects. In the south, the former Folland factory at Hamble continued production of the Gnat trainer, of which 105 were on order for RAF Flying Training Command. Licence production of the single-seat Gnat was also underway in India. The factory also built Trident wings and tails and HS748 wings.

At Kingston work was progressing on the P1127 and the P1154 V/STOL fighters. The P1154 was intended as a replacement for the RAF’s Hunters and the Royal Navy’s Sea Vixens (final examples of which were delivered in 1962), though in the event the Navy rejected the P1154 and ordered McDonnell Douglas Phantoms instead. Development and manufacture of the P1127 Kestrels for the tripartite V/STOL evaluation squadron was conceived. Dunsfold in Surrey handled flight-testing of the Gnats and the Kingston-built Hawker types.

At the former Blackburn factory at Brough, near Hull, production was tapering off of the Buccaneer S.1, which equipped two squadrons of the Royal Navy, while the S.2 was in production for the RN and the South African Air Force. Final assembly and flight-testing of the Buccaneer was at nearby Holme-on-Spalding Moor, where the prototype S.2 had started trials following its first flight in May 1963.

Hawker Siddeley Dynamics

All the missiles, aerospace equipment and associated activities were grouped together as Hawker Siddeley Dynamics (HSD), which also took over the design, development and production of airscrews, air conditioning systems and electronic gear. All products were branded as ‘Hawker Siddeley’. The Chairman was Sir Arnold Hall, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sir Aubrey Burke. The new company employed about 15,500 people, taking on the missile, aerospace and accessory projects and facilities of the former Avro, Whitworth Gloster and de Havilland Propeller companies. Headquarters were at Manor Road, Hatfield, which was concerned with Blue Streak satellite launcher and aerospace communications projects. The Stevenage factory was also involved with Blue Streak production, together with propeller contracts. Spadeadam in Cumbria was operated in conjunction with Rolls-Royce for the static testing of the Blue Streaks’ RZ.2 engines before their long journey to the Woomera Launch Centre in Australia. At Whitley, Coventry, HSD has taken over Seaslug surface-to-air missile production. Manufacture of the Firestreak and Red Top missiles took place at Lostock, near Bolton.

One of the final Comets built was this Mk 4C, SA-R-7, delivered to the Saudi Arabian Government in June 1962. It crashed into the Italian Alps on 20 March 1963. BAE Systems

The Grouping of Hawker Siddeley’s Non-Aerospace Industries

Simultaneously with the establishment of HSA and HSD, the Group set up Hawker Siddeley Industries, Hawker Siddeley International and Hawker Siddeley Holdings. Hawker Siddeley Industries was the holding company for the Group’s industrial power interests (Brush, Fuller Electric, Mirrlees National, Petters and McLaren Fabrications), its metals companies (High Duty Alloys, Norstel and Templewood Hawksley) and Activated Sludge. Hawker Siddeley International was established to coordinate the export sales and promotion of all Hawker Siddeley Group products. Hawker Siddeley Holdings was formed to manage a number of the smaller companies trading in industrial products. Hawker Siddeley Canada was not affected, and remained a self-standing organization.

A Change of Government – Projects under Threat

The Labour Party won the General Election of 15 October 1964, but with an exceedingly slim majority of just four parliamentary seats. Confronted with a dire economic situation, the new Government decided to seriously trim expenditure and within days announced that prestige projects such as Concorde might be scrapped. The Ministry of Defence was known to be examining alternatives to Hawker Siddeley’s HS681 military airlifter and P1154 V/STOL supersonic fighter.

On 14 January 1965, more than 5,000 workers from Hawker Siddeley’s plants at Kingston, Dunsfold and Coventry, joined by BAC workers worried about the TSR2, gathered near Waterloo Station to take part in a protest march. They marched across Waterloo Bridge, along the Strand and Whitehall to Parliament Square, bringing much of central London to a halt. On leaving Parliament Square they marched on to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, where they were addressed by trade union representatives.

The Evening Standard’s headlines were ‘We backed you at the poll they say’ and ‘The angry men are marching.’ The paper continued:

The giant protest march today by thousands of aircraft workers brought much of London to a halt. Traffic was brought to a standstill in Trafalgar Square and long queues stretched back along the Strand, Charing Cross Road, Whitehall and the Mall. As the first column reached Trafalgar Square police split it up. The marchers carried a coffin with the slogan ‘The body of British aircraft’ [actually with P1154 painted on it]. The first of the four batches of marchers had passed Trafalgar Square before the final one moved off.

Workers from Hawker Siddeley Kingston with placards and a coffin ‘The body of British Aircraft’ during their protest against the expected cancellation of P1154 on 14 January 1965. Author

Government Cancellation of Contracts

In the House of Commons on 2 February 1965, the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, made a statement about the P1154, the P1127 and the HS681.

The House will recall the … many changes of policy about replacements for the RAF Hunter and the Royal Navy’s Sea Vixen. In July 1963 the P1154 was going to meet both requirements … In February 1964, this was all changed and the then Government decided to buy American Phantom aircraft as the Sea Vixen replacement … Meanwhile, the P1154 was to go on to provide a replacement for the Hunter when that was withdrawn from service. I have to tell the House that this is not a practicable proposition. It is not so much the question of cost, though the present estimate, made when the aircraft is still only in the design stage, is a very heavy estimate indeed … the problem here is that on these present estimated requirements, and on the latest realistic estimate of the remaining life of the Hunter aircraft, the P1154 will not be in service in time to serve as a Hunter replacement…

In these circumstances, on defence grounds alone, quite apart from the cost argument, it will be necessary to extend the late Government’s purchasing programme for Phantoms and to use this aircraft as a partial replacement for the Hunter. This is the only way to close the time gap. All of us regret it, but this has been forced on us by the facts. They will have British engines and will incorporate as many British components as possible. We are urgently examining the possibility of manufacturing or at any rate assembling them, and making some of the parts in this country…

We have been urgently surveying the needs of our forces in the light of present revised estimates of commitments. We believe that there is an urgent need for an operational version of P1127 … As soon as it can be negotiated, a contract will be placed for a limited development programme so that the RAF can have by the time they need it … an aircraft which will in fact be first in the field, with vertical take-off for close support of our land forces…

[The HS681 was also cancelled because] …its development was authorized so late [by the previous Conservative Government] that it cannot enter service at a date which will meet the real needs of the Forces … there appears to be no alternative to buying the American C-130 which, though offering a lower performance than the HS681, can be ready much earlier. The problem is having them there when they are needed.

There is, of course, a very considerable saving to the Exchequer. Each C-130 costs … about one-third of the present very early estimate of the cost of the HS681, one-third per plane … I do not think that the House can really ignore the saving … but, even if that were not the issue at all, the question of timescale, having it for the right time, is the important one.

So, for the loss of two major projects – the HS681 and the P1154 – there would be a limited development programme for an operational version of the P1127 (which became the Harrier) and a development of the Comet (the Nimrod) to replace the Shackleton, which was also announced in Wilson’s speech.

The American aircraft industry was a major beneficiary of these decisions, though eventually offset work was contracted to British firms. For example, BAC (Preston Division) manufactured tails for Phantoms while Hawker Siddeley at Brough became the British-based design organization qualified to clear modifications and technical instructions for the Phantom without reference to the manufacturers. Marshall of Cambridge became the UK completion centre for the C-130 Hercules.

Mass Redundancies

On the same day Hawker Siddeley announced ‘On the basis of our knowledge today the redundancies in Hawker Siddeley Aviation will be in the region of 14,000 to take effect during 1965. The process will start immediately.’ A few days later came the announcement that Hawker Siddeley’s Baginton (Coventry) factory was to close. This was then followed by redundancies at Kingston and Hamble.

The Government – stung by Hawkers’ announcement and the huge press coverage it received – reacted strongly. Roy Jenkins, Minister of Aviation, met Sir Arnold Hall and informed him that the Government could not accept the statement apparently made by the company that 14,000 redundancies would follow directly from the HS681 and P1154 cancellations. Jenkins estimated that, including indirect workers, about 3,000 people were employed at HSA on the HS681 and P1154, and that had they proceeded this would have built up to about 9,000 by the end of 1965. Other work announced by the Prime Minister would provide employment for about 1,300 by the end of the year, so that the direct net effect of the changes on Hawker Siddeley Aviation workforce requirements over the next eleven months would be a reduction of some 7,700. This figure, not 14,000, was clearly the relevant one.