Hawker’s Secret Cold War Airfield - Dunsfold, Home of the Hunter & Harrier
Published by Air Word - Pen & Sword Books, the title of this
impressive book belies the contents which is far more comprehensive
than is suggested. Author, Hawker Association member Christopher
Budgen, who spent twenty one years working for British Aerospace at
Dunsfold, following his father who was with Skyways and Hawker, and his
great grandfather who worked at the adjacent Hawkins Farm from 1895, is
well placed to write this detailed history of the origins and occupants
of the aerodrome up to its closure by BAE Systems in 2000.
Rightly concentrating on the post-war life of Dunsfold Aerodrome
the author outlines the acquisition of the land, the building of the
infrastructure and its wartime use but soon moves on to the fascinating
episode of Hawker’s occupation and development of the site, and the
Government machinations involved.
The occupant from 1946 was Skyways Ltd, a much larger operation
than most would have thought, followed by Hawker from 1951. In 1952
Airwork started flying refurbished Spitfires from Dunsfold followed
later by Attackers and Sabres, the company leaving in 1959. The author
describes all these activities in some detail.
The bulk of the book records the Hawker work at Dunsfold, and also
at Farnborough and Boscombe Down for the early jets, covering every
type from the Sea Hawk and its derivatives, the Hunter, and Sea Fury
and Hunter refurbishments. The take-over of Folland by Hawker Siddeley
brought the Gnat to Dunsfold for final assembly and flight testing, the
ejection seat trials Meteors together with technical and production
staff. GQ also used Dunsfold for testing their parachutes which were
towed along the runway by the Napier Railton car raced at Brooklands by
John Cobb. The vertical take-off story from P.1127, through Kestrel to
Harrier and AV-8A, via the P.1154 interlude, is followed by those of
the Hawk, the Sea Harrier and the Harrier II.
Included in the narrative is the overall history of
the company, its personalites and its products and contemporary
political events as relevant to the aerodrome. There are numerous
illuminating anecdotes, never previously published, which will
enlighten and entertain the reader. The book will not only be of huge
interest to those who worked at Dunsfold, including the reviewer, but
also to all who value Britain’s contribution to the world of military
aviation. This comprehensively illustrated book is clearly the result
of much original research and so is a valuable contribution to the
database of recorded aeronautical history.
There are chapter by chapter notes on
references and sources, a comprehensive index and a glossary of
abbreviations. Appendices cover airborne data acquisition systems, and
Attacker, Sabre and Sea Fury movements.
No Hawker enthusiast should be without this book so
now is definitely the time to take up the special offer on the flyer
that came with the last Newsletter.
The Aviation Historian Issue 32
Another great cover photograph, looking down on the
RCAF’s Golden Hawk Sabres inverted over Niagara Falls. Things that
caught my interest inside included Keith Hayward on Shorts, post-war,
Tony Buttler on Heinkel’s He 31 1950s jet fighter project thwarted by
the F-104G, the tri-rotor Cierva Air Horse, Britain’s wartime anti-g
suit developments and Chris Gibson on the outrageous Hawker “New Type
of Military Aircraft” schemed in the Project Office by RC Abel in 1957.
The Aviation Historian Issue 33
The mighty Brabazon’s tail fin graces the cover this
time prefacing Keith Hayward’s account of the Brabazon Committee’s work
to get Britain back into the post-war civil aircraft business. What
else especially attracted me? The saga of the Spey Mirage IV for the
RAF, and a detailed account of the development of the Hawker P.1040 -
N7/46 and its subsequent life as the Snarler rocket boosted P.1072.
Both issues, of course, contain much more, always
interesting, and sometimes quirky, pieces of well written and
excellently illustrated aviation history.