The first flights were not conducted in secrecy (Brooklands Society Archive).
organisation was planned that would build motorcycles, motor cars, engines and aircraft. On 15th November 1920 the H G Hawker Engineer- ing Co Ltd, with works in Kingston-upon- Thames, was formed. Final assembly and flight testing took place at Brooklands, utilising the former Sopwith flying school sheds. Harry Hawker was killed aged 32 after crashing a Nieuport Goshawk near Hendon on 12th July 1921. November 1923 saw the appointment of Sydney Camm as Senior Draughtsman, two years later he was promoted to Chief Designer. In 1933 the success of Hawker’s aeronautical projects led to Tommy Sopwith creating a public company – Hawker Aircraft Ltd. This was followed in 1934 with the acquisition of the Gloster Aircraft Company, followed by Armstrong Siddeley Motors and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, A V Roe and Air Services Training in 1935. As orders for aircraft increased, a new factory and aero- drome was constructed at Parlaunt Farm, Langley near Slough. It opened just before World War II began at which stage the company was known as Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Ltd.
High-performance fighter Air Ministry Specification F7/30 was issued in 1930 calling for a high-performance fighter air- craft with four machine guns and a maximum speed of 250mph. Sydney Camm produced drawings that resulted in the Hawker PV3, an orthodox biplane based on the existing Hawker Fury. Although flight tested at Brooklands in 1934, the design was compromised by the likes of Reginald Mitchell’s monoplane configuration as seen in his Schneider Trophy Supermarine air- craft. However, by 1933 Camm was thinking along similar lines, his drawings revealing what might have been considered as a Fury mono- plane. By May 1934 detailed plans were being drawn up in the Kingston Experimental Drawing Office, which also included the new 12-cylinder
34
Rolls-Royce PV12 engine. A scale model was being tested at the National Physical Laboratory wind tunnel in Teddington. On 21st February 1935 Hawker’s received a contract for ‘
...one high-speed monoplane K5083 to a design known as F36/34 single seat fighter.’
‘In the short space of two years the entire scope of interceptor fighter design had undergone fundamental change – probably one of the most radical advances achieved in the history of
aviation.’ Hawker Aircraft since 1920 by F Mason, Putnam 1991
By 22nd October 1935 the aeroplane had been completed at the Hawker works in the new Experimental building on the south side of Canbury Road in Kingston. It was then taken by lorry to Brooklands for final assembly and engine ground runs at the Hawker flight sheds. Visitors to Brooklands would have been used to the sight and sound of Hawker aircraft. Wooden sheds had been constructed alongside the Byfleet Banking in 1909-10, with three bays occupied by Sopwith in the years before, during and after World War I. From the earliest days aircraft were manufactured in Kingston and transported in sub-assembly form, the planes then being erected at Brooklands and test-flown. The likes of Hawker Hind, Hart and Fury in the sky above the circuit would have been familiar to the motor racing spectators. As a result of increased orders in the mid-1930s for Hawker biplane aircraft, additional production floor space at Brooklands was urgently required. The existing assembly shops and flight shed were part of a group of three buildings located behind the Control Office building and the Aero Clubhouse. Originally built by the RFC in the latter part of World War I, the 30,000sq ft hangar with Belfast truss roof was no longer adequate. In January 1934 Boulton & Paul drew up plans for a new erection shop for the Hawker Siddeley
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