URPoint Details
The site of the iconic Hawker factory and airfield, where they made and tested aircraft such as the famed Hawker Hurricane and Fury, is now, sadly, nothing more than a housing estate on the Thames side of the Richmond-Kingston road, in an area known as Ham. While many of the streets are named after famous aircraft, strangely few of them are Hawker aircraft ... instead we have Beaufort Road and Lancaster Close, for instance. Although there is a Kestrel Close and a Camel Grove.
What is especially sad about this lack of acknowledgement is that it also ignores the fact that this was previously the site of the famed Sopwith Works and Sopwith Camels, Pups and Triplanes emanated from here in the First World War. After the War, famed designer, aviator and motor racer Tommy Sopwith was badly let down by the British Government in terms of post-war payments and was forced into liquidation.
But they couldn't keep Tommy Sopwith down for he helped establish the Hawker Aircraft group using the name of his chief test pilot, Australian Harry Hawker from Melbourne, who also contributed to some innovative design facets right up until his unfortunate death in an air crash in the 1920s. This
- Type:
- Landmark