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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1680.PDF
J HAWKER SIDDELEY GROUP face of aviation by producing the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39, the first jet aircraft successfully developed. Armstrong Siddeley, car pioneers at the beginning of the century, are today in the front rank of specialist car design and gas turbine development. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft are chiefly remembered for the all-metal 'Siskin' and for the 'Atalanta' airliner—first aeroplane to make civil aviation pay. Air Service Training—Britain's air university—is the largest and best equipped aeronautical training establishment in the world. A. W. Hawksley, formed in 1941 to build the Armstrong Whitworth 'Albemarle', have since provided factory-built houses for more than 20,000 families. Other members are High Duty Alloys, pioneers in the development of strong, reliable light alloys; and the youngest, A. V. Roe Canada, whose 'Jetliner' transport, CF 100 fighter and 'Orenda' jet engine are already mak ng headlines. In the Second World War the Group produced no less than a third of the aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and built up an organisation which proved itself capable of remarkable foresight, of rapid technical development and of immense production capacity, demonstrating the great advantages to be gained from the pooling of resources. What are the benefits that follow from the unique Group method of working ? Mutual aid from individual research is one. Without research, progress in aviation is impossible. All companies pursue their individual research programmes and freely circulate their technical reports to all the others. But there is more to it than this. Wind tunnels, structural test apparatus and other items of research equipment are very costly. They may be beyond the financial resources of any one company. Only when viewed from the standpoint of the benefit they would bring to all Group companies do they take on a very different aspect. What is beyond the scope of one may easily be within the sphere of nine. Another obvious instance is on the production side. One company with a big order may not have sufficient space to deal with it quickly, but other Group factories may be able to help—and will employ on the job workers as skilled and experienced in aircraft construc- tion as those of the first firm. During the war, for instance, Gloster Aircraft built hundreds of 'Hurri- canes' for Hawker Aircraft. Since then many Group companies have been helping to build Gloster 'Meteors' and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft have co-operated in the design of the 'Meteor' night-fighter version and have undertaken its manufacture. Sometimes a firm needs special and expensive machines and equipment to carry out a particular operation. As with research apparatus, such things may be quite uneconomical in view ot the s.nall percentage of time that one firm could keep the machine occupied with its own work alone. In the Group, however, it is often found after discussion that the equipment would be useful to the other firms and that their cumulative work would be sufficient to keep it in full and economi- cal operation. How, then, is all this co-ordinated so that every one of the members can take the fullest XSgP^O^v. -A advantage of Group «^^^^ •^^ ^>? \ / co-operation? First and foremost, the main principle of Group working can be put into two simple words. No centralization! Some 38,000 people are kept in steady employment by the Group, but at the Central Office there are less than 25— from the Chairman to the hall porter. Thus anyone dealing with one of the operating companies is dealing with a company entirely free to make its own decisions and work its own way without having to refer every- thing of importance to some remote ' head office' where his individual problems are unknown. The Group functions by calling together from time to time the representatives of the individual companies to discuss their common problems. Great benefits derive, often in intangible ways, from the interplay of ideas that takes place, the exchange of experience, and the many different viewpoints that are brought to bear on the consideration of any one subject. All the Group directors, for instance, regularly get together with the general managers of the operating companies. Natur- ally, they have a very wide sphere of interest and are likely to discuss almost anything from spreading one company's peak load among the others to the training of leaders for the future. The technical directors and chief designers of the companies also meet regularly. So do the sales managers and those who are responsible for factory production. But, make no mistake about it, the Group is not too committee-minded. All who need powers to make decisions, have them. And such powers are made infinitely more powerful because they are backed at every stage by the unequalled experience and resources of the entire Hawker Siddeley Group. A V ROE & CO LTD • HAWKER AIRCRAFT LTD SIR W. G. ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH AIRCRAFT LTD GLOSTER AIRCRAFT CO LTD ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY MOTORS LTD A V ROE CANADA LTD • AIR SERVICE TRAINING LTD HIGH DUTY ALLOYS LTD • A W HAWKSLEY LTD
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