Avro Heritage Museum, Woodford
Woodford produced the Nimrod and the 748 under Hawker Siddeley. The museum includes a Nimrod sub-hunting station.
The types
Hawker Siddeley aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folland Gnat | 1955 | 449 | 11 |
| Blackburn BuccaneerS.1/S.2 | 1958 | 211 | 16 |
| Harrier familyP.1127, Kestrel, GR.3, Sea Harrier, GR.9 | 1960 | ~825 | 21 |
| Hawker Siddeley Andover & 748 | 1960 | ~380 | 4 |
| Hawker Siddeley 125 / Dominie | 1962 | ~1,700 | 7 |
| Hawker Siddeley Trident1C/2E/3B | 1962 | 117 | 9 |
| Hawker Siddeley NimrodMR.2/R.1 | 1967 | 49 | 12 |
| BAe HawkT.1 | 1974 | ~1,000 | 11 |
The firm
Hawker Siddeley in brief
It became the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1948. Folland, de Havilland and Blackburn were added in 1959–60. In 1963 the old company names were dropped, and products were branded Hawker Siddeley or HS. Its main sites included Kingston and Dunsfold, Hatfield, Woodford, Brough and Chester.
HS types include the Trident airliner, the 125 business jet, the 748 and Andover, the Nimrod, the Harrier and the Hawk trainer. On 29 April 1977 the aviation businesses were nationalised into British Aerospace.
Where to go
Museums holding Hawker Siddeley aircraft
| Museum | Hawker Siddeley types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 6 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 6 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 5 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 5 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 4 | £13.50 | 49 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 4 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 3 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Farnborough Air Sciences Trust MuseumFarnborough, Hampshire | 3 | Free | 16 | FAST at Farnborough guards the birthplace of British aviation science — Cody, the RAE, wind tunnels — with sit-in Harrier, Puma and Lynx… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 3 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 3 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 3 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 3 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 3 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 3 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Airworld Aviation MuseumCaernarfon, Gwynedd | 2 | £7 | 10 | Airworld at Caernarfon Airport (RAF Llandwrog, birthplace of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service): Hunter, Vampire and the world's only… |
| Avro Heritage MuseumStockport, Greater Manchester | 2 | £9 | 14 | Vulcan XM603 — the only all-white Vulcan on display anywhere, in original anti-flash nuclear livery — plus walk-in Lancaster and Nimrod… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 2 | £10 | 29 | The sit-anywhere policy itself — one entry fee, no per-cockpit charges, a full BAC 1-11 flight-deck sim in a shed, and thousands… |
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 2 | £24–£27 | 32 | Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| De Havilland Aircraft MuseumSt Albans, Hertfordshire | 2 | £12 | 35 | Mosquito prototype W4050, the original 1940 aircraft, in the place it was designed and first assembled. No other British museum has… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 2 | £5 | 35 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 2 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Gatwick Aviation MuseumGatwick, Surrey | 2 | £12.50 | 16 | Avro Shackleton WR982 (the £5 guided tour is unanimously endorsed) and a live-engined English Electric Lightning. There's also… |
| Jet Age MuseumGloucester, Gloucestershire | 2 | Donation | 15 | Gloucestershire's jet-age shrine (free!) beside Staverton airport: Gloster heritage from the E.28/39 replica to Javelins, with… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 2 | £7.50 | 46 | NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 2 | £7 | 22 | RAF Manston's history museum spans 1916 RNAS days to Cold War Meteors, with strong 1940s room-sets — and it sits next door to the… |
| Runway Visitor Park, Manchester AirportAltrincham, Greater Manchester | 2 | £6–£15 | 5 | Concorde G-BOAC, British Airways' flagship (the 'OAC' registration was no accident), enthroned in her own glass hangar with tours from… |
| Solent SkySouthampton, Hampshire | 2 | £14 | 23 | Supermarine S.6A N248, the 1929 Schneider Trophy racer from the bloodline that begat the Spitfire — parked beneath its descendant for… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 2 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 2 | £15 | 23 | Hawker Hunter WB188 in one-off scarlet, in which Neville Duke took the world air speed record to 727.63 mph off this coast in 1953;… |
| Bentwaters Cold War MuseumWoodbridge, Suffolk | 1 | £7.50 | 9 | Bentwaters Cold War Museum occupies the actual USAF hardened command post — war room, battle cabin and decontamination showers intact —… |
| Hucknall Flight Test MuseumNottingham, Nottinghamshire | 1 | By appointment | 3 | Hucknall Flight Test Museum, on the aerodrome where Rolls-Royce flew testbeds from 1934 (and hoisted the Flying Bedstead into history),… |
| Speke Aerodrome Heritage GroupLiverpool, Merseyside | 1 | Free | 7 | Speke Airport Museum — Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group keeps airliners, including a Dan-Air 748 under restoration, on Liverpool's gorgeous… |
| Stoneykirk Aviation MuseumStranraer, Dumfries and Galloway | 1 | £6 | 9 | Stoneykirk: one enthusiast's cockpit collection on a Galloway croft, Vulcan included, with tea, cakes and a perfect 5.0 rating — the… |
| Thorpe Camp Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £7 | 5 | Thorpe Camp preserves RAF Woodhall Spa's communal site — home of 617 Squadron post-Dams — as a period village of huts, with volunteers in… |
| Trenchard MuseumAylesbury, Buckinghamshire | 1 | By appointment | 6 | The Trenchard Museum at RAF Halton tells the story of the RAF's apprentice scheme — 'Trenchard's Brats' — on the working base where… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 1 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
Questions
Frequently asked
When did Hawker Siddeley start using its own name on aircraft?
In 1963. Until then, types carried the names of member firms such as Avro, de Havilland and Hawker.
What happened to Hawker Siddeley?
Its aviation businesses were nationalised into British Aerospace on 29 April 1977. The rest of the group carried on separately.
Which Hawker Siddeley aircraft are still flying?
The Hawk, launched by Hawker Siddeley, still flies with the RAF and the Red Arrows. Most other HS types are now museum pieces.