David Hassard, now a recognised Sopwith expert by dint of his
extensive
research, returned as a speaker to the YMCA Hawker to reveal the latest
fruits of that research. This was a talk full of detail which I am
unable to do justice to but I urge you to find a full video recording
at http://easyurl.cc/HAVideoLibrary.
The introduction to the talk covered Thomas Octave
Murdoch
Sopwith’s early life as the eighth child (he had seven sisters) in the
comfortably off family headed by a father who was a mine owner and
mining engineer, Sadly, aged ten TOMS witnessed his father’s death in a
shooting accident.
TOMS had a love of boats but he was rejected by the
Royal Navy
College so he attended the Seafield Engineering College on the south
coast. At 16 he bought a motorbike, and won a 100 mile trial in a
three-wheeled Pearson car. By 18 he was ballooning, ran a Peugeot car
in the Isle of Man TT race then had a succession of boats culminating
in a schooner which he bought with his old friend Bill Eyre. They
recruited Fred Sigrist from Parsons Engines to install a modern
paraffin engine.
In 1910 TOMS taught himself to fly at Brooklands
gaining
Certificate No, 31. He started competion flying and in 1911 took his
aircraft and Fred Sigrist to the USA where he had a few crashes but won
a considerable amount of prize money,
Tom
Sopwith And The Sopwith Aircraft Factory
Back in England in early 1912 he used the prize money to start the
Sopwith School of Flying and continued with competition flying. He and
Fred Sigrist successfully modified an aircraft to create the Hybrid
which the admiralty bought. TOMS founded the Sopwith Aviation Co.
Australian Harry Hawker joined TOMS at this time, learnt to fly and
became the company test, delivery and competition pilot. Having
acquired the roller skating rink in Kingston TOMS, Sigrist and Hawker
started designing and building aircraft in earnest, and were soon
selling to the Admiralty, and by the end of 1913 had built and sold 18.
In 1914 sales were 30, 1915 199, 1916 386, 1917 851,
1918 1373 and 1919 783. These were all built in the Sopwith factories
to Government war contracts. Sopwith designs were also built by other
UK companies bringing the total to some 15,000, 20% of all British
aircraft built for the Great War. The only other organisation to match
this was the Royal Aircraft Factory. To put this in perspective other
famous UK name’s production were Airco 9, Avro 8600, Bristol 550,
Armstrong Whitworth 2100, Short Bros 1200, Martinsyde 75 and Vickers
500. Fairey, Handley Page and others made less than 500 each, Overseas
4,200 Sopwith Strutters were built in France bringing the total of
Sopwith aircraft built for the great war to 19,200.
Sopwith financial results were also impressive,
income rising from very small in 1912/13 with an equivalent profit, to
the best year 1917/18 with an income of £1,55 million yielding a profit
of £350,000. In 1918/19 the figures were £1.14 million and £120,000.
Why this success? David suggested that one reason
was attention to detail in designing for large scale production. For
example Sopwith had a library of standard parts for designers to choose
from inc;luding metal fittings and wing ribs.
After the war when the civil aircraft market was
saturated with war surplus machines and large scale manufacture of ABC
motorcycles failed, TOMS was forced to liquidate the company’s assets
to pay the debts and reward the shareholders,,,the largest of which was
TOMS himself!
So, Sopwth, Sigrist and Hawker started again with a new company, the HG
Hawker Engineering Co.
