Originally Posted by
pr00ne
When BAe, in another bout of rationalisation, closed Dunsfold and Kingston the Hawk production line moved north, initially to Warton and then to Brough with the new build Hawks doing a one time take off from the short runway at Brough to Holme on Spalding Moor, but when BAe also closed that they went to Warton.
The first Hawks built at Brough, as opposed to a series of components, were the RoKAF Mk67s. They were transported by road to Warton for flight test. This carried on through all of the Mk100 and 200 production, until, due to work levels at Warton, permission was obtained to fly the completed jets from Brough. A new final assembly line and flight shed was completed and the jets made a single flight from Brough to Warton for paint, flight test and final delivery. This covered the remainder of the Mk132 Indian aircraft first batch (before switching to production in India) and the RAF T2 aircraft from number 3 onwards).
No Hawk ever flew to HoSM from Brough which had been shut by then anyway. Subsequent aircraft, RSAF Mk165, RAFO Mk166, QAF Mk167 all reverted to completion at Brough, with road transportation to Warton for first flight.