Originally Posted by
typerated
Remember being at Brough when the Swiss QA team started rejecting airframes for workmanship... owch
The Swiss were pissed off at BAe for shifting final Hawk production away from Dunsfold to other sites - we had a great relationship with the Swiss going back to Hunter days.
We had done a fly off against 2 x Alpha Jets at Emmen AFB in the spring of 1986 and the Swiss team were not aware at that time that the Hawk final assembly was going to be moved northwards - the Hawk move must have come as a real shock to them.
I started at Dunsfold in 1984 and we were Kingston/Brough division for final assembly of Hawk/Harrier - production fuselage manufacture for Hawk/Harrier was at Kingston,Wing Manufacture was at (B)rough,Canopy from Hamble (+ tailplane ?? - T/P insp stamps have become a bit hazy over time) -
Inspection stamps were - Hawker (Kingston/Dunsfold) was HA,Brough was BGA (Blackburn General Aircraft).
Looking at some pictures online - it is indeed possible there might have been a small Hawk final assembly line at Bitteswell to help with Hawk T1 production in the late 70's/early 80's - we did end up with a few ex Bitteswell strange guys at Dunsfold
