Hawker Hart
The Hawker Hart is a British two-seater biplane light bomber aircraft that saw service with the Royal Air Force. It was designed during the 1920s by Sydney Camm and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. The Hart was a prominent British aircraft in the inter-war period, but was obsolete and already side-lined for newer monoplane aircraft designs by the start of the Second World War, playing only minor roles in the conflict before being retired.
Several major variants of the Hart were developed, including a navalised version for the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers. The Hart was also operated by foreign nations, including Sweden, Yugoslavia, Estonia, South Africa, and Canada.
Design and development
In 1926, the Air Ministry stated a requirement for a two-seat high-performance light day-bomber, to be of all-metal construction and with a maximum speed of. Designs were tendered by Hawker, Avro and de Havilland. Fairey, who had sold a squadron's worth of its wooden Fox bomber in 1925, was not at first invited to tender to the specification, and was sent a copy of the specification only after protesting to the Chief of the Air Staff, Hugh Trenchard.Hawker's design was a single-bay biplane powered by a Rolls-Royce F.XI water-cooled V12 engine. It had, as the specification required, a metal structure, with a fuselage structure of steel-tube covered by aluminium panels and fabric, with the wings having steel spars and duralumin ribs, covered in fabric. The crew of two sat in individual tandem cockpits, with the pilot sitting under the wing trailing edge, and operating a single.303 British| Vickers machine gun mounted on the port side of the cockpit. The observer sat behind the pilot, and was armed with a single Lewis gun on a ring mount, while for bomb-aiming, he lay prone under the pilot's seat. Up to of bombs could be carried under the aircraft's wings.
The prototype Hart, serial J9052, first flew in June 1928, being delivered to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at RAF Martlesham Heath on 8 September. It demonstrated good performance and handling, reaching in level flight and in a vertical dive. The competition culminated in the choice of the Hawker Hart in April 1929. The de Havilland Hound was rejected due to handling problems during landing and because of its part-wooden primary structure. While the Avro Antelope demonstrated similar performance and good handling, the Hart was preferred as it was far cheaper to maintain, a vital aspect to a programme during defence budget constraints that the British armed forces faced during the 1920s. The Fairey Fox IIM, delayed by Fairey's late start on the design compared to the other competitors, only flew for the first time on 25 October 1929, long after the Hart had been selected.
A total of 992 aircraft were built as Harts. It became the most widely used light bomber of its time and the design would prove to be a successful one with a number of derivatives, including the Hawker Hind and Hector. There were a number of Hart variants, though only slight alterations were made to the design. The Hart India was a tropical version, the Hart Special was a tropical Hawker Audax, a Hart variant with desert equipment; a specialised Hart Trainer was also built which dispensed with the gunner's ring. Vickers built 114 of the latter model at Weybridge between 1931 and June 1936.
The production Hart day bomber had a Rolls-Royce Kestrel IB 12-cylinder V-type engine; a speed of and a range of. It was faster than most contemporary fighters, an astonishing achievement considering it was a light bomber. It also enjoyed excellent manoeuvrability, making the Hart one of the most effective biplane bombers ever produced for the Royal Air Force. In particular, it was faster than the Bristol Bulldog, which had recently entered service as the RAF's front line fighter. This disparity in performance led the RAF to gradually replace the Bulldog with the Hawker Fury.
Demand was such that production was spread out among a wide selection of aircraft companies. Of the 962 built in the United Kingdom, Hawker produced 234, Armstrong Whitworth 456, Gloster 46, Vickers 226 and 65 aircraft built under licence by South African Air Force Roberts Heights Depot, Pretoria, in South Africa, and 42 were produced in Sweden under licence by ASJA who built 18, Götaverken who built three and the Central Workshops of the Air Force who built 21. 1004 Harts were produced.
Operational history
The Hart entered service with No. 33 Squadron RAF in February 1930, replacing the larger and slower Hawker Horsley. No. 12 Squadron replaced its Foxes with Harts in January 1931, with a further two British-based Hart light bomber squadrons forming during 1931.Harts were deployed to the Middle East during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–1936. The Hart saw extensive and successful service on the North-West Frontier, British India during the inter-war period. Four Hawker Harts from the Swedish Air Force saw action as dive bombers during the 1939–1940 Winter War as part of a Swedish volunteer squadron, designated F19, fighting on the Finnish side. Though obsolete compared to the United Kingdom's opposition at the start of the Second World War, the Hart continued in service, mainly performing in the communications and training roles until being declared obsolete in 1943.
The Hart proved to be a successful export, seeing service with the Royal Egyptian Air Force, Royal Indian Air Force, South African Air Force, Estonian Air Force, Southern Rhodesia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Rhodesian Hardys saw service on the Allied side during the opening moves of the East African theatre of World War II.
Swedish Air Force General Björn Bjuggren wrote in his memoirs how his squadron developed dive-bombing techniques in the mid-1930s for their B4s. When the Hawker engineers found out, they issued a formal objection, saying that the aircraft had not been designed for that purpose. However, the Swedish pilots proved that the aircraft was up to the task and dispelled their concerns.
Variants
Hart
;Hart I;Hart SEDB
;Hart
;Hart
;Hart Trainer
;Hart Trainer
;Hart Fighter
;Hart
;Hart
;Estonian Hart
Hawker Hartbees
Hartbees Mk.I
;Swedish Hart
Audax
The Hawker Audax was a Hart variant, designed for army cooperation, seeing much service in the British Empire. The first Audax flew in late 1931 and over 700 Audaxes were produced. The Audax was similar to the Hart, though had some modifications, including a hook to pick up messages. It was armed with a single Scarff ring-mounted.303 in Lewis gun and a fixed forward-firing.303 in Vickers machine gun and was powered by a version of the Kestrel engine and had a maximum speed of. A number of variants of the Audax were produced, including the Audax India, a tropicalised version of the Audax for service in India and the Audax Singapore for service there.Other air forces which also used the Audax included the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Indian Air Force, the South African Air Force, the Royal Egyptian Air Force, the Royal Iraqi Air Force, the Imperial Iranian Air Force, the Straits Settlements and the Southern Rhodesian Air Force. During the Second World War the Audax saw limited service in Africa on the Kenya–Abyssinia border during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. The Audax also saw service in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya, west of Baghdad, after the uprising there, during the Anglo-Iraqi War. In the days leading up to that battle crews began to upgrade the Audaxes stationed there, despite having received orders forbidding such actions. They fitted some to carry bombs instead of bombs.
The Audax ended its service by 1945. A derivative of the Audax, the Hawker Hartebeest, a light bomber, was built for the South African Air Force with modifications made from the Audax. Sixty-nine of these aircraft were built, the majority in South Africa. The aircraft saw action in East Africa during clashes against Italy who occupied Abyssinia.
A.V. Roe built 287 Audaxes as part of the RAF expansion scheme during 1935–1937. These did not warrant an Avro type number but between 1937 and 1938, Avro built 24 modernised Audaxes for the Egyptian government, powered by Armstrong Siddeley Panther VIA radials. Acknowledging the amount of redesign work done, these were designated the Avro Type 674.
Audax I
Audax
Audax
Canadian Audax
Egyptian Audax
Iraqi Audax
'''Persian Audax'''
Demon
The Hawker Demon was a fighter variant of the Hart light bomber. During air defence exercises the RAF's Siskins and Bulldogs were often unable to intercept the new Hart bombers, which were sometimes instructed to restrict their height and speed in order to give the fighters a chance, which prompted the development of a fighter variant of the Hart.While the Hawker Fury offered better performance, lower production volumes made it more expensive and therefore it remained available only in small numbers, so when a fighter version of the Hart was suggested, the Air Ministry selected the type as an interim fighter until higher-performance fighters could be bought in larger numbers. The new fighter variant added a second Vickers machine gun, while the coaming of the rear cockpit was angled to give a better field of fire, and a supercharged Kestrel IS engine was fitted. Evaluation of an initial batch of six aircraft, known as Hart Fighters by one flight of 23 Squadron during 1931 was successful, and larger orders followed for the fighter Hart, now known as the Hawker Demon. The production Demon's first flight was on 10 February 1933.
305 Hawker Demons were built, including 232 for the RAF. The Demon was powered by versions of the Kestrel engine. It had an armament of a single rear.303 in Lewis Gun with two fixed.303 in Vickers machine guns in the nose. Many were fitted with a hydraulically-powered turret in the rear gunner's position, which had been tested on the Hawker Hart. Demons were also sold to the Royal Australian Air Force. It saw only second-line operations during the Second World War. Production of the Demon was undertaken by Hawker and by Boulton Paul Aircraft at their Wolverhampton factory, where their last example of 106 to be completed was delivered to the RAF in December 1937.
;Hart two-seat fighter
;Demon I
;Australian Demon I
;Australian Demon II
;Turret Demon