Consolidation
Mosquito production continued until 1948, by which time work had begun on DHA's third indigenous design, the DHA-3 Drover. On 29 June 1949, following selection of the type by the RAAF in 1946, the first of 190 licence-built DH.100 and DH.115 Vampires had its first flight with DHA's chief test pilot Brian "Black Jack" Walker at the controls. Production of the Vampire continued until 1960, the same year the parent company was purchased by Hawker Siddeley. At this time the company also entered the general aviation market when it became the Australian distributor for Beechcraft in 1959. Following the absorption of de Havilland by Hawker Siddeley, DHA was renamed Hawker de Havilland (HdH) in 1965. In 1959 the de havilland marine division was formed.
The end of the Vampire programme marked the beginning of an extended period when no complete aircraft were produced, although there was work for the company in various modification (see DHA-3 Drover) and repair and overhaul programmes, including repairing RAAF DHC-4 Caribous damaged on active service during the Vietnam War and major servicing of the RAAF Caribou fleet. One design project pursued during this time was for a military jet trainer for the RAAF. HdH offered its P17 indigenous design derived from the Vampire and was also involved in the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF) F2 project, which would have seen HdH undertaking production work on this aircraft with GAF and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC). The CAC-built version of the Aermacchi MB-326 was selected for production in 1965 and neither project proceeded. However all was not lost as CAC subcontracted to HdH the manufacture of the wings and wingtip fuel tanks, tailplanes, ailerons, flaps, hydraulic system components and landing gear for the Macchi, as well as parts of the Macchi's Viper engines built by CAC.
In 1970 HdH entered a new phase when it began to pursue subcontract work for civil airliner manufacturers. This work is now the main focus of the company and HdH has manufactured components for many of the major airliners of the later part of the 20th century and the 21st century, including work for Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas. In 1976 HdH undertook the refurbishment of 16 ex-US Navy Grumman S-2G Trackers for the Royal Australian Navy. In 1980 the thriving general aviation division was separated as Hawker Pacific but both companies remained part of Hawker Siddeley. In 1981 HdH formed the Australian Aircraft Consortium with CAC and GAF to design and manufacture the A10/A20 Wamira. The project suffered numerous delays and cost increases (due in part to the changing requirements of the RAAF and in part to the inexperience of the consortium members in designing to military requirements) and shortly after the prototype was completed at HdH's Bankstown factory the programme was cancelled at the end of 1985.
Earlier in 1985 HdH purchased CAC, which was initially kept as a separate company but was then renamed Hawker de Havilland Victoria (HdHV) the following year. At the time of the purchase both companies were in the initial stages of producing components for the GAF-built version of the F/A-18 Hornet. HdH at Bankstown was responsible for the landing gear and major hydraulic system components including aileron, rudder and flap actuators and hydraulic fluid reservoirs; while CAC/HdHV was responsible for the wing pylons, engine access panels, aft nozzle fairings, aircraft-mounted accessory drive gearboxes and engines.
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