Hawker Siddeley

Hawker Siddeley

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Hawker Siddeley Group Limited
fate = Aircraft merged with British Aircraft Corporation and Scottish Aviation.
group divested
successor = British Aerospace, Bristol Siddeley
foundation = 1934 (as Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Co.)
defunct = Aircraft 29 April 1977
as a whole 1992
location = London, England, UK
industry = Aerospace, Engineering
key_people = Harry Hawker, J. D. Siddeley
products =
num_employees =
parent =
subsid = Hawker Aircraft, Gloster Aircraft Company, A. V. Roe and Company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft,
A.V. Roe Canada/Hawker Siddeley Canada (from 1945),
Folland Aircraft (from 1959),
de Havilland Aircraft (from 1960),
Blackburn Aircraft (from 1960)

Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies renowned for their aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several well-known British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of only two such major British companies in the 1960s. In 1977, Hawker Siddeley became a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace (BAe). In 1993, BAe sold its corporate jet product line to the American Raytheon Aircraft Company (now Hawker Beechcraft), who maintain the Hawker legacy with a successful range of business jets.


Hawker Siddeley Aircraft was formed in 1935 as a result of the purchase by Hawker Aircraft of the companies of J. D. Siddeley; the automotive and engine builder Armstrong Siddeley and the aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. At this time, Hawker Siddeley also came into control of A.V. Roe & Company (Avro), Gloster Aircraft Company (Gloster) and Air Training Services. The constituent companies continued to produce their own aircraft designs under their own name as well as sharing manufacturing work throughout the group.

During the Second World War, Hawker Siddeley was one of 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 Britain's front-line defence in the Battle of Britain. During this campaign, Hurricanes outnumbered all other British fighters, combined, in service and were responsible for shooting down 55 percent of all enemy aircraft destroyed.

In 1945, the Hawker Siddeley purchased Victory Aircraft of Malton, Ontario, Canada from the Canadian government, renaming the company, A.V. Roe Canada, commonly known as Avro Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley. During its operation, Avro Canada designs included the Avro Jetliner, Avro CF-100, CF-105 Arrow and VZ-9- AV Avrocar. Only the CF-100 fighter entered full-scale production. After the cancellation of the Avro Arrow, the company began to unravel. In 1962, A.V. Roe Canada was dissolved and the remaining assets were transferred to the now defunct Hawker Siddeley Canada. The heavy rail manufacturing business, based in Mississauga and Thunder Bay, Ontario, have been acquired by Bombardier Transportation.


In 1948, the company name was changed to Hawker Siddeley Group. The aircraft division would become Hawker Siddeley Aviation (HSA) and the guided missile and space technology operations as Hawker Siddeley Dynamics (HSD). In 1959, the aero engine business, Armstrong Siddeley was merged with that of the Bristol Aero Engines to form Bristol Siddeley. 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. In 1959, Folland Aircraft was acquired, followed by de Havilland Aircraft Company and Blackburn Aircraft in 1960. In 1963, the names of the constituent companies were dropped, with products being rebranded as "Hawker Siddeley" or "HS". In this period, the company developed the first operational, and, by far, the most successful VTOL jet aircraft, the Harrier family. This aircraft remained in production into the 1990s and remains in service.

Expansion into railways

In 1957, Hawker Siddeley purchased the Brush group of companies that included Brush Electrical Machines, and Brush Traction who manufacture electromotive equipment and railway locomotives. The Brush prototype locomotives "Falcon" and the futuristic but over-weight HS4000 'Kestrel' were produced here. Other railway engineering assets were acquired, including Westinghouse Brake & Signal and the engine builder Mirrlees Blackstone.cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Welcome to Saskrailmuseum.org
work = Caboosesa
publisher =
date = September 11, 2008
url = http://www.saskrailmuseum.org/
format =
doi =
accessdate =2008-10-03
] ] In the early 1970s Hawker Siddeley's Canada Car and Foundry subsidiary began to build rapid transit vehicles for the North American market. The first order was for the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line and consisted of 38 PA-3 cars, which were largely based on the original hexagonal profile PA car design built by the St. Louis Car Company. Later Hawker Siddeley would sell the same general design to the MBTA in Boston for their Blue and Orange Lines. 70 48' cars were delivered to the Blue Line in 1978-80 and 120 65' cars were delivered to the Orange Line in 1980-81. Hawker Siddeley also manufactured a great deal of the Toronto Transit Commission's older subway fleet, the H5 and H6 models.

MBTA also bought a number of commuter rail coaches from the German firm Messerschmitt, teaming up Hawker Siddeley with its old wartime rival under the same organization.

Nationalisation of aircraft production

On 29 April 1977, as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, Hawker Siddeley Aviation and Dynamics were nationalised and merged with British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Scottish Aviation to form British Aerospace; BAe. However, HSA and HSD accounted for only 25% of the Hawker Siddeley business by this time, and the non-aviation and foreign interests were retained by a holding company known as "'Hawker Siddeley Group Plc" after 1980. The group was rationalised in the 1980s, focusing on railway engineering and signaling, industrial electronics and instrumentation and signaling equipment. In 1992, Hawker Siddeley Group Plc was broken-up, and the various assets sold off, some of which were acquired by BTR Aerospace Group.

Hawker Siddeley today

In 1973, HS acquired the industrial electronics firm South Wales Switchgear. Later known as Aberdare Holdings, in 1992 this company was renamed Hawker Siddeley Switchgear (HSS). They have an Australian subsidiary, Hawker Siddeley Switchgear Australia. Another company which retains the name is Hawker Siddeley Power Transformers. Orenda Aerospace, as part of the Magellan Aerospace Corporation, is the only remaining original company from the Avro Canada / Hawker Siddeley Canada era, although greatly diminished in size and scope of operations.The late 80's saw Hawker Siddeley divest itself of much of it's other North American heavy manufacturing enterprises. It's Canadian rail car production facilities were split between SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier and it's Talladega, Alabama based TreeFarmer heavy equipment business was sold to Franklin Equipment.



The Hawker Siddeley name was not used to brand and market aircraft until 1963. Prior to this, aircraft were produced under the name of the subsidiary company (e.g. Hawker Hurricane, Gloster Meteor). First flight date is in parenthesis.

* HS121 Trident (1962) - originated as de Havilland DH.121
* HS125 & Dominie (1962) - originated as de Havilland DH.125
* HS146 (1981) - originated as de Havilland DH.146. Project suspended but revived under British Aerospace as BAe 146
* HS748 (1960) - originated as Avro 748
* HS780 Andover (1965) - military derivative of HS748
* Kestrel (1964) - a Hawker project
* Harrier (1966)
* P.1154
* HS801 Nimrod (1967) - development of the de Havilland Comet
* HS1182 Hawk (1974)
* Buccaneer - originated as Blackburn Buccaneer. Hawker Siddeley built a number of S Mk.2B aircraft for the Royal Air Force

*Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 transport project renamed as HS.681

*Hawker-Siddley HL Helicrane
*Hawker-Siddley HM Helicrane


* Blue Steel missile (Avro)
* de Havilland Firestreak
* Martel (missile) in collaboration with Matra
* Hawker Siddeley Red Top
* Sea Dart missile (HS)
* Sea Slug missile (Armstrong Whitworth)

Heavy Equipment

* TreeFarmer (Heavy Logging Equipment)


* [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Hawker/Aero51a.htm US Centiennal of Flight Commission - Hawker Siddeley accessed 23 May 2008]
* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/companypage.php?ID=29 British Aircraft Directory entry]

ee also

External links

* [http://www.hssaustralia.com/about_us.htm Hawker Siddeley Australia corporate website]
* [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/HAWKER-SIDDELEY-GROUP-PUBLIC-LIMITED-COMPANY-Company-History.html Funding Universe | Hawker Siddeley Group Public Limited Company - Company History]

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