Documentary Slideshow – The Kingston Aviation Story
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Topics covered -: Introduction to Kingston Aviation – Tom Sopwith – Sopwith’s first flight – The young Sydney Camm – The Sopwith School of Flying – Fred Sigrist – Major Hugh Trenchard – Harry Hawker – The Sopwith Hybrid – Sopwith Aviation moves to Kingston – The Skating Rink – Trucking aircraft to Brooklands – Flotation testing on the Thames – ‘Buttons’ – The Sopwith Bat Boat – The Mortimer Singer Competition – The ‘gang’ – How Sopwith Aviation became successful – The Daily Mail ‘Circuit of Britain’ race – The Sopwith Tabloid – The Schneider Trophy 1914 – Howard Pixton – Sopwith Aviation on the eve of the First World War.

Topics covered -:The need to mass produce aircraft for the war – Development of the Canbury Park Road ‘island’ site – Sopwith Aviation becomes a major local employer – The drafting of women into the workforce – New role of aircraft in warfare – The ‘trade’ and the Royal Aircraft Factory – Principles of aerial warfare – Use of aircraft for reconnaissance and spotting – Use of aircraft to attack ground targets – Strategic bombing – Development of interceptor fighter aircraft – Dogfights – Aces – Concept of air superiority – Anthony Fokker – The synchronization gear – The ‘Fokker Scourge’ – Sopwith 1½ Strutter – Tactics used in dogfights – The Sopwith Pup – Use of aircraft at sea – First landing on a ship underway – The Sopwith Triplane – ‘Bloody April’ – Manfred Von Richthofen – Pilots fear of fire – Parachutes – The Sopwith Camel – Ships Camels – The Tondern raid – Use of Camels against Zeppelins – Use of Camels from lighters – Visit of the King and Queen to Canbury Park Road – The Drawing Office – Sopwith Aviation staff – Frank Spriggs – Need to build more aircraft for victory – Winston Churchill and National Aircraft Factories – Production at Ham works – Sopwith Snipes and Salamanders – End of the war in 1918 – Sopwith Aviation’s contribution to the war effort – The Royal Air Force – Recognition for ‘the gang’.

Topics covered -: The post-war market downturn – Sopwith Aviation civil aircraft not successful – New London showroom – The Sopwith Atlantic – The Atlantic crossing attempt, 1919 – The return of Harry Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve – Alcock and Brown’s successful crossing – Sopwith Aviation closes – Horsley Towers – Formation of H.G. Hawker Engineering – Motorcycle production at Canbury Park Road – Harry Hawker filled – Hawker’s funeral and tributes to him.

Running time: 18 minutes Topics covered -: Need for new types of aircraft by 1922 – Operational requirements and specifications – the Hawker Woodcock – Fred Raynham – Sydney Camm – Camm at Martinsyde – how Camm joined Hawkers – the Hawker Cygnet – George Bulman, Chief Test Pilot – Camm promoted to Chief Designer – The Hawker Horsley – The World Long Distance Record – Metal construction – the Camm/Sigrist system of airframe construction – the Hawker Hart and its variants – the Trenchard Doctrine, ‘the bomber will always get through’ – the Drawing Offrice – how Camm ran the Design Department – the wit of Sydney Camm – the Hawker Fury and its variants – the ‘RAF choice’ – change of name to Hawker Aircraft Ltd. – Sopwith and the America’s Cup – acquisition of Gloster Aircraft – develoment of Brooklands – Hawker Siddeley Aircraft.

Topics covered -:Plans for a Hawker monoplane – Supermarine monoplanes win the Schneider Trophy – Monoplane airliners – German re-armament with monoplane fighters – The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine – Hawker monoplane based on biplane technology – First flight of the Hurricane, 1935 – Government slow in committing to an order – Sopwith orders production to begin at company’s own risk – First production Hurricanes well received – Development of the Langley factory – Government recognizes need for fighter production – Re-organisation of the RAF – Sir Hugh Dowding heads Fighter Command – Rivalry between Hawker and Supermarine – Problems with Spitfire production – Hurricane becomes the world’s fastest fighter – Munich Crisis, 1938 – Frank Spriggs tasked to maximise Hurricane production – Hurricane production at Gloucester – Hurricane production in Cananda headed by Elsie MacGill – Outbreak of World War Two, 1939 – Churchill returns to power – Lord Beaverbrook becomes Minister of Aircraft Production – Battle of France – Dowding desperate to minimize fighter loses – Fall of France, 1940 – Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speach.

Operation Sealion – Numbers of aircraft on the British and German sides – Fighter Command and the Dowding System – Opening phase of the Battle of Britain – Hurricane’s tight turning circle – Eagle Day and attacks on RAF infrastructure – The robustness of the Hurricane – Pilot loses – Luftwaffe attacks on London – The ‘Big Wing’ – Battle of Britain Day, 15th September 1940 – Victory in the Battle of Britain – The Hurricane and the Spitfire – Sydney Camm, ‘This Man Saved Britain’ – Hurricane night patrols during the Blitz – Hurricane developed in the ground attack role – ‘Catafighters’, Hurricanes in the Battle of the North Atlantic – Sea Hurricanes – Hurricanes in the Red Air Force – ‘Tankbusters’, Hurricanes in the North Africa campaign – Hurricanes in the Burma campaign – Hurricane production finishes in 1944 – An essentially ‘British’ aircraft.

Attacks on aircraft factories – Design Department moves to Claremont House – ‘Roy’ Chaplin and the ‘bright young men’ – Robert Lickley and academic engineers – John Fozard and Ralph Hooper – The Hawker Typhoon – The death of test pilots – The Typhoon as a ground attack fighter – The Hawker Tempest – V.1. flying bombs – The Tempest in the push for Berlin – Churchill on the importance of air superiority – The contribution of aircraft to the WW2 victory – Production at Hawker factories in WW2 – ‘It was hard work in the war time factories’ – Frank Spriggs and wartime management – Memories of wartime camaraderie – Aircraft industry is Britain’s largest industry at the end of the war.

Post war austerity – The Atlee government cuts back on aircraft development – Frank Whittle and the jet engine – The Gloster Meteor – Early Hawker jet designs – The Hawker Sea Fury – Bill Humble – Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’ speech – The Cold War – Britain’s nuclear deterrent – Fears for a Third World War – NATO and the re-deployment of air forces – The V-Force – Supersonic flight – The Miles M.52 – The U.S. supersonic programme – The Korean War – The Sea Fury in action in Korea – The Bay of Pigs – The P.1040 is Hawker’s first jet – The Hawker Sea Hawk – The Canbury Park Road factory in the late 1940s – John Lidbury – The closure of Langley – The move back to Ham Works, Richmond Road – Hawker takes over Dunsfold Aerodrome.

Swept wing jets – Early Hawker experimental jet designs – the P.1067 (Hunter prototype) – the world’s fastest fighter aircraft – Neville Duke and the Hawker Hunter – Sydney Camm, engineer or artist? – Churchill makes Hunter “Super Priority” aircraft – Hunter production – Problems with Mk 1s and Mk 2s – Planned supersonic Mk 3 – Government cuts end Mk 3 project – Sopwith and Camm knighted in Coromation honours list, 1953 – Sydney Camm always respects Tom Sopwith – Neville Duke takes World Air Speed Record in a Hunter, 1953 – Mk 4 and Mk 5 developments – Mk 6 Hunter becomes NATO aircraft and sells around the world – Mk 7 two seater Hunter – Sydney Camm’s aspiration to build a supersonic aircraft – The P.1121 – Duncan Sandys – 1957 Defence White Paper – Government scraps existing aircraft projects – P.1121 project scrapped – Damage done to British supersonic aircraft development – Consolidation of British aircraft industry – Hawker Siddeley and B.A.C. – Death of Fred Sigrist – Development of Richmond Road site by John Lidbury – Hawker move out of Canbury Park Rd.

Sydney Camm dismayed by lack of government support – Strategic re-think at Kingston on future role of fighter aircraft – VSTOL and the ‘Flying Bedstead’ – Stanley Hooker and Ralph Hooper – The Pegasus engine and vectored thrust – The P,1127, a private venture – First tethered hover at Dunsfold – Bill Bedford – Further P.1127 development – First carrier landing on HMS Ark Royal – The Tripartite Evaluation Squadron – P.1127 renamed the Kestrel – NATO requirement for a VSTOL aircraft – John Fozard leads P.1154 development – No agreement over a common version for both the RAF and the Royal Navy – Labour Government of Harold Wilson comes to power in 1964 – The TSR-2 – Lobby in government for the American F-111 – Cancellation of the TSR-2 by Denis Healey, 1965 – P.1154 is cancelled in the same round of cuts – Policy of ‘cancel British, buy American’ – F-111 contract cancelled, 1968 – F-4 Phantoms ordered for the Royal Navy – P.1127 development kept low key – Success of Tripartite Squadron trials – American enthusiasm for the Kestrel – An advanced re-design of the Kestrel ordered for the RAF.

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier – Opposition to the aircraft in U.S. Congress – HSA Kingston – Tom Sopwith retires – Sydney Camm now ‘out of step’ with the times – Sydney Camm dies, 1966 – ‘The greatest designer of fighter aircraft the world has known’ – Full programme of works at Kingston – The Transatlantic Air Race, 1969 – Harrier ordered by US Marines as the AV-8A – The two seater Harrier – The need for a new jet trainer – Development and commercial success of the Hawk – USA buys the Hawk – The Hawk is the last entirely British built aircraft – All future projects will be international collaborations – Nationalization of British aircraft industry, 1977 – British Aerospace Kingston – Tom Sopwith opposed to nationalisation – Privatization under the Thatcher government – The Sea Harrier – The ‘ski jump’ – The Falklands Conflict, 1982 – Exceptional performance of Harriers in the Falklands – The lessons of the Falklands conflict – Margaret Thatcher visits BAe Kingston to a mixed reception, 1982 – The P.1216 remains a ‘drawing board aircraft’ – BAe Kingston and McDonnell Douglas develop a second generation of Harriers – The AV-8B and the Harrier 11 – British Harriers mothballed in 2011 – Harrier still in service 50 years after the first flight of the P.1127 – The Hawk adopted by the Red Arrows – The T-45A Goshawk adopted by the US Marines and another joint project with McDonnell Douglas.

Tom Sopwith’s 100 year birthday celebrations at Brooklands – Tom Sopwith dies in 1989, the ‘last of the pioneers’ – the reason for his outstanding success, ‘pure luck’ – The Cold War ends – The fall of the Berlin Wall – The ‘peace dividend’ means fewer fighter aircraft required – BAe decides to focus production on sites in the north – Closure of BAe Kingston, 1992 – Kingston loses its largest employer – Demolition of the Richmond Road site – The ‘end of an era’ at Kingston and tributes paid to 80 years of aircraft production – BAE Systems – Harriers and Hawks are still in service – Hurricane flies in Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – Kingston forgets its aviation heritage – Iconic buildings still remain – A proud heritage of aviation firsts.