Sydney Camm was born in Windsor, Berkshire, on 5th August, 1893, the son of a carpenter. After leaving school Camm became an apprentice woodworker and developed an early interest in aircraft, becoming a member of the Windsor Model Aeroplane Club. He joined the G.H. Martinsdale aeroplane company and worked there throughout the First World War. During this period of great technical developments Sydney Camm gained his first opportunity to design aeroplanes.
In 1922 Camm joined the Hawker Engineering Company in Surrey as a senior draughtsman. He became Chief Designer in 1925 and remained with Hawker until he died in 1966.
He was involved in all the famous inter-war Hawker aircraft designs, Cygnet, Nimrod, Hart and Fury. However, it was the lead-up to the Second World War that Camm began to work on aircraft that would prove to be invaluable to the Royal Air Force. He moved away from the traditional biplane design and opted to build his first monoplane fighter aircraft which became known as the Hurricane. The Hawker Hurricane was designed and built to meet the same Air Ministry requirement, which also attracted R.J. Mitchell at Supermarine, who designed the Spitfire. By August 1940, Hawkers had delivered more than 2,300 Hurricanes to the RAF, and it was the Hurricane that shot down more German aircraft than all other British types combined during the critical Battle of Britain.
During the war, Camm continued to design fighter aircraft, with the Hawker Typhoon and Hawker Tempest both entering production and RAF service. After the war, Sydney Camm turned to designing jet powered aircraft, such as the Sea Hawk, the classic swept-winged Hawker Hunter and the P.1127. Working with Stanley Hooker of the Bristol Engine Company and his Hawkers colleague Ralph Hooper, Sir Sydney Camm designed the P.1127 the world’s first Vertical/Short Take-Off and landing aircraft. Making its first successful tethered flight on 21st October 1960 the P.1127 has subsequently been developed into today’s successfully family of Harrier aircraft.
In 1949, Sydney Camm was awarded the British Gold Medal for Aeronautics and four years later he was knighted for his contributions to British Aviation by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II. In 1954 he was elected President of the Royal Aeronautical Society and in 1966; he was posthumously awarded the highest American award, the Guggenheim Gold Medal.
Sydney Camm died on 12th March 1966, at the age of 72 years in Richmond, Surrey, just a few miles away from the factory where he has spent most of his working life.
