Fly Past

22 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS

HAWKER

1926 TO 1935

HAWKER HORSLEY

HORSLEYHORSLEY

1918 2018

in present-day values) for the place

in 1918 and he poured money in to

modernise it. In September 1920

Sopwith Aviation and Engineering

was liquidated and ‘Tommy’ was

forced to sell Horsley Towers. But the

name was to take to the skies with

Sopwith’s new business, Hawker.

SHORT SERVICE

Initially conceived to be a day

bomber, as development of the

Horsley progressed, it was adapted

into a torpedo carrier. The prototype

first flew in 1925.

As was commonplace in the 1920s,

the design went through an evolution

as the RAF took on charge 113

Horsleys between 1926 and 1931.

After ten all-wooden Mk.Is, the

67 Mk.IIs featured a metal-framed

forward fuselage. The final 36

Horsleys had an all-metal structure

but oddly these never received the

more logical Mk.III designation.

The big biplane enjoyed some export

success: to Denmark – where it was

called the Dantorp – and to Greece.

The first pure bomber examples for

the RAF were issued to 100 Squadron

at Grantham in August 1926,

replacing Fairey Fawns. Horsleys

bowed out of British frontline service

with 33 Squadron at Eastchurch

greatest was a biplane from Hawker.

It revelled in the name of a stately

home that had been owned by the

company’s chief, Thomas Sopwith!

To be fair, it was originally proposed

that the new type be called Kingston,

after the Hawker factory and

headquarters. Horsley was chosen to

honour Horsley Towers, a huge early

19th century manor house set in

nearly 3,000 acres of land alongside

the hamlet of East Horsley in Surrey.

Aged 30, Sopwith successfully bid a

whopping £150,000 (£16·5 million

W

ith the Great War still

raging, Lt Col James G

Weir, Controller of the

Technical Department of the

Ministry of Munitions, issued a

document on July 8, 1918 outlining

how the new Royal Air Force would

name its aircraft. Weir – who became

a pioneer of British rotorcraft from

the mid-1920s – was anxious to

establish some consistency.

As regards single-engined land-

based or deck-landing types, single-

seaters were to take the names of

reptiles or birds, but not snakes or

predatory avians. Single-engined

two- or three-seaters could adopt

mammals, except for cats. The

snakes, raptors and felines were the

exclusive domain of engine builders.

Multi-engined machines up to

11,000lb (4,989kg) all-up weight

could choose towns in England or

Wales. Above that figure, places in

Scotland and Ireland could be picked

• how’s that for regionalism! Later,
  locations in the colonies were added.
  The ‘system’ was occasionally
  revised and today the RAF still gives
  its aircraft names, not numbers.
  There have been many exceptions to
  the rules of the day and one of the

Right

The prototype torpedo

bomber Horsley,

J8006, in 1927. It

spent most of its

life at Martlesham

Heath and Gosport on

development work,

ending its days with

100 Squadron from

1930 to 1932.

Below right

Horsley TB.II S1237 of

Donibristle-based 36

Squadron dropping a

torpedo in the Firth of

Forth, 1929. KEC