On 19th November 2010 a celebration was held by the Hawker Association to mark the 50th anniversary of the first untethered hover of the first of Ralph Hooper’s P.1127s, XP831.
Members who had been with Hawkers during the P.1127 design, manufacture and development period, together with some special guests, were invited to a lunch at the Brooklands Museum in the Chequered Flag Room which was filled by the some 125 who had accepted the invitation.
It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky so old colleagues and friends gathered outside in front of the Club House in the sunshine to reminisce around the sixth P.1127, XP984. Duncan Simpson, John Farley and Ralph Hooper were interviewed by the BBC.
As one o’clock approached the gathering moved inside to the bar and Bluebird Room where original Hawker display models of the P.1127, P.1150, and various P.1154s and Harriers were on display together with bronze busts of Sydney Camm and Tom Sopwith.
The Chequered Flag Room had been prepared beautifully with round tables all set with white table linen and shining cutlery and glasses. After Grace, spoken by the Rev Vernon Lidstone, everyone enjoyed the excellent hot buffet of beef Stroganoff with rice followed by pear and almond tart. This was accompanied by a digital slide show of P.1127 photographs.
After coffee the first and most important toast, to Ralph Hooper, was proposed by John Glasscock, then Ambrose Barber proposed a toast to absent friends.
John Parker, BAES’s Heritage Manager who had kindly arranged for BAES to provide funding towards this event, introduced Angus Currie, BAES’s Harrier Project Director who spoke about the current Harrier situation after which John presented to Ambrose Barber, for the Hawker Association, a Mark Bromley painting of XP831’s first free hover.
Group Captain Peter Bedford remembered his father, Bill Bedford, who made that first flight in XP831. Next came Duncan Simpson speaking about Hugh Merewether who shared all the early P.1127 development flying, and lastly Group Captain Jock Heron talked about the Harrier in service.
To finish with, a film of the early P.1127 test flying, put together by Hugh Merewether from 16 mm film taken by members of Fred Sutton’s Flight Development Department, was screened.
Somewhat reluctantly the party broke up at about 3.30 with all agreeing that they had had a good time and had marked the anniversary appropriately.
The speeches, in some cases edited for space reasons, follow this
report. (Separate Web Pages).