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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0151.PDF
MARCH 12, 1925 THE HAWKER ENGINEERING COMPANY Kingston Factory Busy THERE can be little doubt that we have now turned the corner, and that those aircraft firms who have struggled through the period 1919-1923 are fairly certain of some substantial reward for their faith in the future of aviation, and for the courage and determination which carried them through what has for most firms been an exceedingly difficult period. Although there are at the present time 'very few firms in this country that are absolutely full up and working to their maximum capacity, there are, on the other hand, few that have not got on hand at least enough work to mentioned, and so there is good reason for regarding the firm, in spite of its financial dissociation from the Sopwith Company, as one of the " old-timers." Readers of FLIGHT will recollect that when the Hawker company was formed by Hawker, Sopwith, and Sigrist, the firm commenced by designing and building motor-cycles, taking over the Sopwith works at Kingston. It was not long, however, before aircraft work was resumed, and for some considerable time now the whole of the one-time Sopwith factory has been devoted to aircraft production. This does not, of course, mean that 5swAim ' - I" HAWKER ENGINEERING COMPANY : Two views in the erecting shops, construction are Snipe and D.H.9A's. The machines in course of enable them to carry on comfortablv, and the Air Estimates for the financial year 1925-26 appear to give promise of increased activity all around. In the case of the H. G. Hawker Engineering Co., Ltd., to whose works at Kingston- on-Thames we paid a visit recently, it is all the more gratifying to find plenty of work, since the firm was founded by, and still includes, many who were among the pioneers of British aviation, although the firm itself is of relatively recent date. Mr. T. O. M. Sopwith was, of course, one of the early Brooklands workers, and associated with him from the beginning has been Mr. F. Sigrist, who is now joint managing director with Mr. Sopwith. The names of several others, associated with Mr. Sopwith, in the old Sopwith firm which attained world fame during the War, might be for the whole of this period the entire factory has been filled with aircraft machinery, but it does mean that should the emergency arise the Hawker Engineering Co. could, at very short notice, turn to mass production, and, as already mentioned, there is at present sufficient work in hand to keep a fairly big staff of workmen employed. A visit to the Hawker factory the other day revealed the fact that all the most recent methods of manufacture are in use there, at any rate as regards the production of the usual composite types of aircraft. For all-metal construction the works are not yet fully equipped, but from this fact it should not be inferred that the firm is not doing any metal work. On the contrary, a considerable amount of experimental work is being carried out, and at least one type of all-metal MAWKER ENGINEERING COMPANY : On the left one end of the 'plane assembly shop, and on the right the large machine shop. 151
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