“The Rise and Fall of the Hawker Siddeley P1154”

Thursday 11th December 2014

Lecture Starts at 7.30 pm

By Dr Michael Pryce, Cranfield University

Venue: Conference Room, Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, Cambridge Airport, Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8RX (SATNAV: CB5 8RY)

Advance notification of attendance required.

Please contact Branch Secretary Jin Yu via email at hon.secretary@cambridgeraes.info or call 01223 373129.

Parking is available in Cambridge Airport Visitors Car Park (including Disabled Parking in front of ‘Arrival and Departure’ entrance).

Public access to Conference Room is via Cambridge Airport ‘Arrival and Departure’ entrance situated in Visitors Car Park.

More information on venue can be found at https://cambridgeraes.info/directions/

Lecture Synopsis
The Hawker Siddeley P.1154 was a supersonic V/STOL strike fighter designed by the same team that gave the world the successful Harrier family. The P.1154’s cancellation in February 1965 had a major impact on the UK’s aerospace capabilities, the echoes of which resonate even today.

In this talk, Michael Pryce will give a detailed history of the P.1154, which had progressed to the prototype construction stage before cancellation. With its Bristol Siddeley BS.100 engine run on the test stand, thousands of workers throughout industry employed on the project, and millions of pounds spent, the P.1154 was a significant cancelled project, second only in its importance during the 1960’s to the famous TSR2.

Based on extensive archive research, and interviews with those in industry, the services and government, this lecture will show the P.1154 in its rightful place in UK aerospace history. Outlining the various requirements from NATO, the RAF and the Royal Navy, to which the P.1154 was designed, the lecture will look at the political, technical and operational aspects of the project and their complex interactions. The true reasons for, and implications of, the project’s cancellation will be highlighted.

The lecture will also seek to draw parallels between the 2010 SDSR, which cut the UK’s Harrier and carrier fleets, to events in the 1960’s. It will also place the P.1154 as part of a continium of work that led to the UK’s contribution to the F-35 JSF programme.

Mulled wine and Mince Pies to follow lecture.