The first overseas subsidiary of the de Havilland Aircraft Company was established in Melbourne Australia in March 1927. Initially set up as a Sales and Parts supplier, it relocated to Sydney in 1930. After World War I, de Havilland aircraft were being built under licence by companies such as Qantas but following the move of the company to Sydney it started ‘in-house’ aircraft production with an initial assembly of 20 Tiger Moths for the RAAF. Further orders created the need for more capacity and so a new facility was built at Bankstown where DHA produced over 1,000 aircraft by the time production ended in 1945. During the same period they produced DH84 Dragons, DH94 Moth Minor and DH98 Mosquito. In 1942, DHA produced its first indigenous aircraft design, a small transport glider designated DHA-G1 followed by the improved DHA-G2. With Mosquito production ending in 1948 work concentrated on their third indigenous design, the DHA3 Drover. Sadly, production ran to only 20 aircraft and so the effort was switched once again to assembly of UK designed aircraft including 109 DH115 Vampire Trainer aircraft. De Havilland Aircraft was merged with Hawker Siddeley in 1959, although it was not until 1963 that the Australian company name was changed to Hawker de Havilland (HdH) in 1965. During the remainder of the 1960s it carried out support and repair work on a number of manufacturer’s aircraft as well as manufacturing wings and control surfaces. This continued through the 1970s with work being secured from Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell-Douglas. In 1980, the thriving aviation division was separated as Hawker Pacific, whilst Hawker de Havilland embarked on a number of ill-fated consortiums and joint ventures. During 1985, the name became Hawker de Havilland Victoria and refocused its activities on component manufacturing, support and repair, as well as the assembly of Sikorsky Blackhawk Helicopters for the Australian Army. By 1992, the de Havilland brand had almost disappeared from Australia with the sale of Hawker Siddeley Group to BTR with Hawker de Havilland being absorbed into BTR Nylex. Today, HDH exists creating composite structures for Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier as well as a number of military projects.
Genealogy
1927 de Havilland Australia Pty
1963 Hawker de Havilland Australia Pty
1985 Hawker de Havilland Victoria
1992 BTR Nylex
de Havilland Australia aircraft
DHA-G1; 1942; Number built: 2
DHA-G2; 1943; Number built: 6
DHA-3 ‘Drover’; 1948; Number built: 20; Versions: 3; Photo
