(Above) The prototype Hurricane being flown in 1935. The prototype was assembled in the Experimental Shop on the south side of Canbury Park Road, which is still there
Kingston University is honouring one of aviation history's unsung heroes by naming a new learning resources centre at its Roehampton Vale campus after industry legend Sir Sydney Camm, chief designer at Hawker Aircraft during the Battle of Britain.
TV presenter Kate Humble will perform the opening ceremony on Thursday March 25 with former employees of Hawker and some contemporaries of Sir Sydney looking on. Kate discovered her grandfather, Bill Humble, was Hawker's Chief Test Pilot when she was the subject of BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are?
Sir Sydney Camm circa the early 1920s when he joined HG Hawker Ltd as a draughtsman. In just two years he became Chief Designer
Hailed by colleague and aviation pioneer Sir Thomas Sopwith as "the greatest designer of fighter aircraft the world has known", Sir Sydney was a pioneer of the biplane and designed the Hawker Hurricane and other important World War II aircraft.
The Hurricane's crucial role during the Battle of Britain led Sir Sydney to be described by the News Chronicle in 1941 as "the man who saved Britain".
In the 1950s he designed some of Hawker's leading jet aircraft and was later in charge of the team that developed the early prototype of what would become the Harrier Jump Jet.
The Learning Café in the new Sir Sydney Camm Centre, Kingston University London
The Sir Sydney Camm Centre commemorates the significant contribution he made to aircraft design in his work for the Hawker Aircraft company, which once occupied the site of the University's Faculty of Technology in Canbury Park, Kingston.
Seventy years on from the Battle of Britain, the Faculty of Engineering is now the final link between the town of Kingston and its aeronautical heritage.
Keep up to speed with the latest news about the Battle of Britain 70th anniversary at www.culture24.org.uk/battle-of-britain.
