FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0019.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 January 1955 19 HAWKER SIDDELEY PROGRESS T the 19th annual general meeting of the Hawker Siddeley Group which was arranged in London 'last Wednesday, January 5th, Sir Thomas Sopwith, the chairman, first referred to the report and accounts (which had been circulated) and then, as is his custom, described the progress and plans of the companies in the group. He said that the trading profits of theGroup for the year ended July 31st, 1954, after deducting special development expen-diture and reserve for increased replace- ment cost of fixed assets, amounted to£6,961,041, as compared with £5,033,744 last year. Production and sales of theGroup's and Dominion interests both showed an increase over last year. After providing depreciation of £2,321,393on the Group's fixed assets, the directors had considered it prudent to charge a fur-ther £1,009,000 for replacement of fixed assets. This reserve was thereby increasedto £7,000,000, the whole of which had been provided from taxed profits. "The present high rate of taxation," saidSir Thomas, "which for too long has been a feature of our national economy, reducesseverely the profit which, after making reasonable distributions to shareholders, isavailable to build up industry's resources. While this prevails the increased cost ofreplacing capital assets is bound to remain a problem. Although the Government hasto some extent recognized this problem through the introduction of investmentallowances, these are inadequate and go only a small way towards the larger prob-lem. More realistic annual allowances should be granted on industrial buildings.Many of the specialized buildings and structures essential to our industry havea much shorter life than the 50 years assumed by the annual allowance. "Profits must also be ploughed back toenable industry to finance research and development. . . . You will note thatduring the year we have spent nearly a million pounds on special developmentprojects. This is yet another example of private enterprise doing its part towardsfinancing today's research problems to ensure production orders for the future." Turning to the balance-sheet, the chair-man said that the increase in the Ordinary share capital by £5,822,350 had beenexplained in the directors' report. The Board were recommending a final dividendof 7? per cent, less tax, which was the maximum final Ordinary dividend. Sir Thomas went on to say that sincethe end of the financial year the Group's Canadian interests have been reorganizedinto a parent company, and subsidiary interests on similar lines to the UnitedKingdom structure. A. V. Roe Canada, Ltd., had, over the last nine years, growninto the largest aircraft and engine manu- facturing comoany in Canada. [The for-mation of the Canadian group was referred to in F'ight of December 3rd, 1954, as werethe details of the division of Avro Canada's engine and aircraft factories andthe^ acquisition of new companies.] "Our United Kingdom interests," con-tinued Sir Thomas, "have been expanded since the end of the financial year by theacquisition of Kelvin Construction Co., Ltd., which is a company with a fine repu-tation in the design, fabrication and erec- tion of industrial buildings. It has factoriesat Glasgow and at Greenford in Middlesex." The chairman then continued:"The shape of aircraft is rapidly chang-I ing and the patterns we shall see flyingabout the skies in the not-so-distant future will be very different from those we nowknow. To meet these changes the work of our scientists and technicians becomesever more important. There is still a shortage of people with really high tech-nical standards at every stage in aircraft design and construction. "Fourteen air forces have expresseddirect interest in the Hawker Hunter which is now in squadron service withthe Royal Air Force. The United States has increased off-shore procurement ordersand contracts have been placed by Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. "The Avro Vulcan is well advanced inproduction. The capabilities of this air- craft, in speed and operating height, give ita large measure of immunity from attack. "The Avro Company is producing theShackleton Mark 3. A valuable order for this type has been received from the SoudiAfrican Air Force. "Avro's have many interesting develop-ments in connection with electronic com- puters and simulators specially designedand made by themselves, which in addition to speeding up complicated calculationsenable them to carry out investigations which would otherwise be impossible. "After eleven years the production ofthe world-famous Meteor came to an end. Dove-tailed into the fade-out on Meteorproduction, the Javelin line is being built up and early production Javelins are nowflying. "Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft have, asusual, had a busy year. Their Sea Hawk sub-contract from Hawker Aircraft wascompleted and arrangements were made to take over all Hawker's surplus of thisaircraft, thus leaving that company entirely unfettered in their Hunter production.Armstrong Whitworth are also to assist Gloster in Javelin production in additionto work they are doing on Hunters. "Avro Aircraft, Ltd., in Canada havesubstantial contracts in hand for the CF-100. A development contract hasbeen received from the Canadian Govern- ment for a new aircraft of a very advanceddesign, known as the C-105. All I can say is that it is a twin-engined supersonic,long range, all-weather fighter. "Four engines in the Armstrong Siddeleyrange of gas turbines—the Sapphire, Mamba, Double Mamba and Viper—arein production. These engines are used in ten British aircraft. "Equipment of the new Brockworthengine factory, including die provision of 500 houses for key workers, is virtuallycomplete, and production of the Sapphire there is proceeding well. Facilities havealso been provided for the overhaul of Sapphire and Orenda engines. "Production of die Sapphire continuesunder licence in the United States where six types of American aircraft are poweredwith this British-designed engine. "Development of improved versions ofthe Orenda continues. A new engine which embodies many unique features and has ahigh titanium content is being developed. We have just comnleted a new researchlaboratory which will be of great value." Turning to rocket and guided-missilework, Sir Thomas Sopwith said that Arm- strong Whitworth Aircraft had beenresponsible for much pioneer work on guided weapons and had achieved a greatdeal. In addition to firing trials which had been taking place for some time inthis country, firing trials had commenced at the Woomera Rocket Range in Australia.Overall facilities for research and develop- ment had been expanded and the organ-ization in Australia strengthened. Armstrong Siddeley Motors had beenworking on rocket motors for some time. The section dealing with this work hadbeen considerably expanded and had been formed into a separate division. A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd., had alsoentered this sphere with the formation of a Weapons Research Division. . . . At this point Sir Thomas referred tothe work of the motor car and diesel engine departments. He then went on torefer to High Duty Alloys. "Progress has been maintained," he said, "we have againimproved our technique in the production of close-to-form gas turbine blades, makingour ten-millionth blade in the early part of the year. "Your interest in the aluminium industryhas been broadened by the acquisition of a rolling mill in Wales."Canadian Steel Improvement, Ltd., has made an outstanding contribution toCanada's aircraft programme as a supplier of close-to-form compressor and turbineblades. We are expanding the company's present forging capacity by additions tobuildings and equipment, and widening its scope by the construction of a new largelight alloy foundry. "This new addition to the group will beable to supply Canada's growing industry with a complete range of high qualityforgings and castings. In particular the company has a great deal of experience inthe technique of fabricating and employing titanium. "Air Service Training continues to oper-ate successfully technical training schools in India and Pakistan, and also pre-appren-tice and pre-cadet schools for the Pakistan Air Force which are run on English publicschool lines. "Training at Hamble continues on areduced scale in the flying, navigation, radio and engineering schools. Seventyper cent of the students are from overseas." Before expressing some thoughts on thecurrent status of the country's air power and that of our allies, Sir Thomas expressedthanks and appreciation to the 65,000 executives and employees of the HawkerSiddeley Group. He then continued with a reference to the wise decision on the partof the Government to supplement orders for one or two prototypes with a muchlarger pre-production batch. "It should be plain to everyone," he said,"that we are now in the age of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon of destruction so vast andso horrifying that it staggers the imagina- tion. We hold this weapon—and so do ourpotential enemies. There are those who say, 'If this be true, let us abandon all hopeof defence.' And diese prophets of despair clamour for appeasement. "Make no mistake about it. The one sureway to invite disaster is for this country to Dursue a policy of weakness. "And strength in airpower is not onlyatomic strength but die ability to deal any- where with local wars, with local tensionswhether they be in Korea, Indo-China, Malaya, the Near East, the Arctic orWestern EuroDe. "Only one thing is sure, if war does come,it will come with supersonic speed—and probably in an opening sneak attack. Andto provide defence against that requires more than courage and faith. It needsequipment and trained manpower, and that policy requires money, time and decision."
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
