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Encyclopedia > Harry George Hawker

Harry George Hawker (22 January 188912 July 1921) was an Australian aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aviation, the firm responsible a long series of successful military aircraft, including the Fury, Hurricane, Hunter and Harrier.


Hawker was born in Moorabbin, Victoria. As a 12-year-old he worked at a garage helping to build engines for five shillings a week, before going to England in 1912. He became immersed in aviation, began instructing novice flyers, and managed hangars at Brooklands aerodrome, the hub of British aviation. Having established his name as an aviator he became chief test pilot for Tom Sopwith who was already recognised as the originator of many fine aircraft..


In 1914 Harry Hawker returned to Australia to demonstrate the advanced Sopwith Tabloid which he had earlier helped design. A wild crowd nearly wrecked the plane on one occasion and he further damaged it during stunt flying, so he went back to England, where he remained throughout the Great War, designing and testing production aircraft with Sopwith.


After the war, he attempted to fly the Atlantic in a triplane and disappeared. Six days later he turned up in Europe aboard a tramp freighter without a radio. He won the Daily Mail prize of 5000 pounds, however.


In September 1920 Sopwith Aviation was liquidated because of fears the government would examine the wartime aircraft production contracts of companies like Sopwith and impose a crippling retrospective tax liability on them.


Harry Hawker, Tom Sopwith, Fred Sigist, and Bill Eyre then formed a new company, each contributing 5,000 pounds. To avoid any possible claims against the new company for the wartime contracts of the old company, they chose to call it H.G. Hawker Engineering. (It was renamed to Hawker Aviation in 1933.) As Tom Sopwith put it: "to avoid any muddle if we had gone on building aeroplanes and called them Sopwiths—there was bound to be a muddle somewhere—we called the company the Hawker Company. I didn't mind. He was largely responsible for our growth during the war."


Hawker was killed in 1921 when his aircraft crashed while practicing for an airshow. He had spinal tuberculosis and that plus a fire in the air were considered contributing factors.


In 1989 Moorabbin Airport was renamed "Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport".


  Results from FactBites:
 
NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Harry Hawker (1223 words)
Harry George Hawker (22 January 1889–12 July 1921) was an Australian aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aviation, the firm responsible a long series of successful military aircraft, including the Fury, Hurricane, Hunter and Harrier.
Harry George Hawker, the second son of a Moorabbin flsmith of Cornish blood was born in a small rented terrace cottage in Wickham Rd., on January 22, 1889.
Hawker believed that in England he would soon learn to fly and the young man of scarcely 22 years of age left his native shores hoping of success in the new sphere and perhaps at the same time wondering if he was doing the right thing.
NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Harry George Hawker (554 words)
Harry Hawker although still a schoolboy was ever eager to accept that challenge so much so in fact that he disregarded the essential pre-requisite of a sound primary education.
Harry Hawker was employed as a mechanic with the small Sopwith company and scarcely had he been placed on the payroll when he began lessons in flying as a pupil of Sopwith, his employer.
Harry George Hawker was born in 1889 at Moorabbin, Victoria, the son of an engineer and wheelwright.
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