Pictures from the Heritage Archives

Armstrong Siddeley in Advertising

With the declaration of war on the 3rd of September 1930 the car division of the Hawker Siddeley Empire was disbanded, leaving only a handful of essential employees to complete the unfinished saloons in the Burlington works. Car construction was now peripheral, as at Parkside tank gearboxes, torpedo engines and gyroscopes, as well as Cheetah aero engines were now in full production; as was the construction of the bomb doors and cockpit section for the Lancaster bomber.

The Hawker Group contributed a major proportion of both fighter and bomber aircraft to the war effort, as well as in the areas of transport, training and reconnaissance. To show the public what the company had achieved and was achieving they ran a series of war time advertisements.

Hawker Group planes shown here are the Hawker Hurricane, Avro Anson, Gloster Gauntlet, Armstrong -Whitworth Ensign, Armstrong -Whitworth Whitley, and the Avro Tutor. Note the Armstrong Siddeley 16hp car in the bottom corner.

Published in The Autocar in December 1943 and in The Motor on April 12th 1944 the adverts above reminded a weary public of successes achieved and pointed to better times to come.

A feeling which perhaps many of us today may well understand as Covid in this instance is brought under control.