Hawker Siddeley

The Hawker Siddeley name dates back to 1935 when Hawker Aircraft successfully acquired the engine manufacturer Armstrong-Siddeley, along with Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, A.V. Roe and Company (Avro) and Gloster Aircraft Company to form Hawker Siddeley Aircraft. The constituent companies of the enlarged manufacturing group continued to produce their own aircraft designs under their own name, while sharing any resultant manufacturing work throughout the group. The manufacture quickly became known for designing innovative military aircraft. Some of its most famous planes included the Hawker Hurricane, a key fighter in the Battle of Britain, and the Hawker Typhoon, which played a vital role in operations in preparation of and continued support to the D-Day landings.

In 1948 the company name was changed to the Hawker Siddeley Group, with the aircraft sector of the group being known as Hawker Siddeley Aviation Limited. In 1959 Hawker Siddeley expanded further, acquiring Folland Aircraft. Further mergers were to follow when the UK government, in an attempt to rationalise the aircraft industry, decided to only offer new government contracts and development grants to larger organisations that had been formed from mergers and take-overs. This decision resulted in Hawker Siddeley merging with de Havilland Aircraft Company and Blackburn Aircraft Company in 1960 – at the same time that the British Aircraft Corporation, another consortium of aircraft companies, was also created. As had happened after the earlier mergers, aircraft continued to be produced by the constituent firms under their own branding, but by 1963 the decision was taken to drop the names of the component companies, with products being rebranded as Hawker Siddeley alone.

During the 1960s, Hawker Siddeley diversified into commercial aviation, with the introduction of aircraft like the Hawker Siddeley Trident, which was a significant part of Britain’s effort to compete in the jet airliner market. The Trident was one of the first three-engined commercial jets and saw widespread use in the 1960s and early 1970s. The 1960s also saw the company develop one of their most famous aircraft, the Hawker Harrier which went on to become the first fully operational VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) jet aircraft. Manufactured at the company’s Kingston site on the banks of the River Thames, with assembly at Dunsfold, the Harrier led the way in the development of vectored thrust technology, much of which will be used in the aircraft of the 21st century. Other sectors of the Hawker Siddeley Group included a Dynamics Division (Guided Weapons) and Railway, Locomotive and Subway Rolling Stock businesses throughout the USA and Canada.

On 29th April 1977, the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act saw the nationalisation of Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Divisions which were merged with British Aircraft Corporation to create British Aerospace.  The non-aviation and foreign interests remained under a holding company known as Hawker Siddeley Group Plc which was eventually sold to BTR in 1992.

Although Hawker Siddeley Aircraft no longer exists as an independent company, its legacy in aviation is significant. Its innovations in military and civilian aircraft, particularly in jet propulsion and aerodynamics, helped establish the UK as a global leader in the aviation industry, and lived on in its successors British Aerospace and later BAE Systems.