Hawker Hart | The Bomber That No Fighter Could Catch (in 1930)
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Today, we’re taking a look at one of the first truly mass produced British military aircraft, becoming the backbone of RAF’s expansion program in the mid-1930s, and this was the Hawker Hart.
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Sources:
Mason.F.K (1994), The British Bomber Since 1914.
Mason.F.K (1992), The British Fighter Since 1912.
Mason.F.K (1991), Hawker Aircraft Since 1921.
Flight Magazine (various articles, 1930s.)
![From Tragedy to Triumph | The Record Breaking Fairey Long-Range Monoplane [Aircraft Overview #77]](/img/1.gif)
F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Would be cool to see some swedish aircafts.
Does a hovercraft count? I've actually been on one of them massive passenger ones from England to France, across the Channel.
I'm curious about how the new federal legislation about Nazi symbols will affect you, if at all.
@@brianedwards7142 Should be no effect on historical education. Concern how it affects real swastikas, the good luck symbol around the world, Celtic, Hindu, Roman, Navajo, Jain, Thai etc.?
Should absolutely target current specific nazism.
Would be nice to see the Fiat Cr.42! :)
One can see the Hurricane shape in Hawkers work.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
...never change a running system...! 😉
Which then evolved into the Typhoon, Tempest and a candidate for the greatest in performance piston fighter the Sea Fury
The Hurricane started out as the Fury Monoplane.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 true. The Hind at Shuttleworth goes the other way, still Hawker and even more Hurricanesqe.
I read an autobiography of an RAF pilot who served between the wars. He mentioned flying a number of aircraft including the Hart. But he mentioned something I had not come across before. He called it the Siskin face. Apparently the Siskin was tricky to land and it could result in the pilots face making contact with the instrument panel which left its mark on the pilots face. Having a Siskin face was regarded as a sign of a pilot had not mastered the aircraft.
G'day,
That sounds like a
Second generation
Iteration of the famous
"Camel Face"...
Owing to the 2 Vickers Guns' (boxy Steel) Recievers protruding into the Cockpit, at the 10 & 2 "O'-Clock" positions of the Instrument Panel..., the better for being able to use a 2-pound "Coal Hammer" (mounted in the Cockpit as part of the regular fittment !) to belt the Cocking-Handle to clear any Gun-Jams...
The flat rectangular But-plates had 1-inch of Kapok Padding under Leather Upholstery...; so
Sudden Decelerations -
Especially before the 4-Point
Sutton Harness was invented, specifically after one Camel almost threw Mr Sutton out of the Cockpit when the Elastic-sided Lap-Strap
Expanded and let him slip through..., after Negative-G resulted from application of full Forward Stick...; sudden decelerations -like breaking the Undercarraige or nosing over, or hitting anything solid, while moving at significant speed..., tended to throw the Pilot's Face onto the Guns' Butplates hard enough to break both Cheekbones, leaving the Rectangular imprint of two Air-Cooled Vickers-Maxim Guns on their visage, forevermore...
The secret was to
Not crash one's
Camel...
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
@@WarblesOnALot Thanks WarblesOnAlot. I had totally forgotten about the Camel Face.
Safety during this period did leave something to be desired. Towards the end of WW1 the Germans started introducing the first parachutes which resulted in the deaths of a number of their pilots. Fills you with confidence.
And the 2-pound coal hammer. Not much call for them these days as hitting your heating with one is not recommended.
Here in the UK summer has now finally arrived. Which has left us all startled at what that bright object in the sky is.
Have fun and remember to take you 2-pound coal hammer next time you fly. Though I'm not sure how airport security will react. Especially when you explain about the machineguns.
Happy trail.
😀
One of the prettiest aircraft ever made in my opinion. Camm was a real genius, consistently designing world-class aircraft for nearly 4 decades.
Me too. Looks very sleek for a biplane. If only retractable landing gear was feasible/desired in the design.
@@vanguard9067 That aircraft was handsome enough already, but without that undercarriage It would definitely be a sleek beauty. And a bit faster to boot.
@@2ndfloorsongs agrred. A beauty to start, even with fixed gear.
@@vanguard9067 Yeah, I'm even a little surprised how beautiful I find this aircraft to be...
@@robertmcmanus636 now that you say it, yes, me too.
A beautiful aeroplane and one of my favourites; thanks for this video.
The only prettier biplane is the Fury which takes the Hart's layout and refines it further.
@@RaderizDorret Fair comment, the Fury's a stunner.
I remember a display a few years ago at Old Warden where the Demon flew with a Hind that was also resident there - a lovely sight and sound. We got an air test of one of them before the display proper started too, which was carried out at a distinctly more sporting velocity.
You are doing aircraft history a great service. Thank you for the super video. Peace be unto you.
Wonderful. I have a nice illustration of Harts in action in the tribal areas of the empire in a copy of "The Modern Boy's Book Of Aircraft...
Seem to be a lot of bombers that were very briefly faster than extant fighters
Absolutely love the history portion in the beginning of the video. Funny how desk jockies ,who can recognize an aeroplane 4 out of 5 times become experts in the field. As if you would need another subject to cover, the methods of construction and joining would be a great video (although appreciated by a very small group ). Can not wait for the continuation of the Hawker family. Once again, love the background histories !!!!
I too, love manufacturing details. I bet Rex could make almost anything dealing with airplanes interesting to a much larger audience than either of us could imagine.
It never ceases to amaze me that my Father (an Aeronautical Structural Engineer in the UK) was only 8-14 years old during these years.
Hawker Hart, oh deer! nice plane, and you know you've improved an engine when you've knocked 60 pounds off the weight!
I saw what you did there.
An elegant design for the era. Another plane to add to the gallery "If it looks right, it will fly right".
The Hawker Hart and it's contemporaries, are perfect examples of the kind of airplane I would really like to fly in a computer game using the Gaijin Dagor engine.
The fact that a bird roughly the size of a raven took down an aircraft by _attacking_ it is certainly something. It also brings new meaning to the term "bird strike".
Interesting note on the Hawker Hart: The British Air Ministry created the specification which led to the Hawker Hart in reaction to the appearance of the revolutionary Fairey Fox light bomber, which out-preformed all of the RAF's current single-seat fighters. However, the RAF rejected the Fox because it was powered by a license-built American engine, the Curtiss Conqueror. Nevertheless, even after Fairey redesigned the Fox with a Rolls-Royce engine, the RAF preferred the Hart. However, since the RAF did not buy the Fox, Fairey were at liberty to sell them to foreign customers. The largest user of the Fairey Fox was Belgium, in which country Fairey set up a factory to manufacture them for the Royal Belgian Air Force, which was still flying some of them when Germany invaded in 1940.
One of the most elegant aeroplanes ever put in the air by the RAF. If you look, you can see the Hurricane in her.
Fantastic, my grandad was posted to RAF Holton in 1930 and when I passed out in the 1990's he said there wre Hawker Harts there. And later on in my military A/C career at RAF VAlley on 208 Sqd when we sadly were disbanded and the squadron history/photgraphs were going in the skip. As ground crew we were allowed to take our pick of what was to go. I picked up a picture of a Hawker either Audax or Demon out in the middle east, sadley some of the stuff from the cold war which I put my name on and labeled not to be removed ended up torn up in the skip, as this was supposed to go the cold war aviation museum. Even the Pilots bless 'em ended up skip diving saving stuff they could not believe was binned, including a rather nice wooden tea caddy. So it makes me wonder as working on an even keel of Hawker Aircraft to other shite (Tornado and Typhool(Sorry Typhoon)) Hawker in my mind are the best A/C I have ever worked on and I have the most fondest memories of. Roll on my good Sir for a Hawker extravaganzer.
Now THAT's what I call bird strike!
He would have had to have hit and broke the prop to take it down or that is what I suspect.
At a top speed of - what - 150 mph - that bird would have had only one go at the aircraft. I can't imagine what it did. Maybe the pilot had been stunting?
Yet another well done video. I've found these inter war years aircraft to be most interesting , gives perspective on how the advancement occurred. Many of the subjects I had no knowledge of . Thanks .
Rarely I have seen a more enjoyable video, or such a beautiful aircraft.
The Kite taking down a Hart must bring ancestral PTSD to all the Aussies, at least this one wasn't an Emu
The more of these videos I see, the more it is apparent how short was the reign of the piston powered monoplane in general military service. So many biplanes were in use right up to and into ww2 and the jet (Inc turboprop) was pretty much ubiquitous by the end of the Korean conflict. Really only very specialised and transport piston monoplane lasted beyond that time. Remarkable how fast progress was back then.
A very handsome machine. No doubt the experience with it contributed to the structure of the Hurricane.
Very informative as usual. The Hart's production numbers are very high for a single type built in the 1930s by any country. Thankfully, some survive. I note traces of Hurrican design in the Hart.
Hands down, the prettiest biplane.
The Bird take-down is hilarious . That was one ANGRY Raptor . A Hawk(er) taken down by a Kite .
A GREAT Plane , from the Legendary Hawker Corporation . De Havilland did much the same during the Second War .
I would be interested in seeing some of the various Canadian “bush” planes: Noorduyn Norseman, DHC Beaver, Otter, Twin Otter, etc.
Also the DeHaviland Canada DHC 1 Chipmunk
Ah, the start of your coverage of the Hawker Hart family. I thank you and look forward to more. I hope you can get round to the Fairey Fox some time which enjoyed some over seas success.
I cannot thank you enough for doing this vid--absolutely
Looking forward to anything to do with inter-war military aviation , my favorite era for outlandish airplanes
Beautiful aircraft.
Thanks very much for another very important piece of British aviation history.
No 33 Sqn's badge features a hart's head following its successful introduction of the Hawker Hart into service. The Sqn introduced the Puma into service in the early 1970s. I served on 33 from 1973 to 1978. Happy days!
Looking forward to another video that includes the Hawker Demon. Which, BTW, was Australia's *_only_* available dedicated fighter immediately after the Japanese attack on Malaya/Pearl Harbour.
the irony is that the Hart changed air warfare for decades to come as well. it was the aircraft that forced fighters from prioritizing Maneuverability, to prioritizing Speed. (Japan missed the memo though)
Thanks for this. I've always been interested in the Hawker 30's biplanes, and for whatever reason there's very little information available on YT. Those production stats are interesting. It looks like the Hart pretty much kept the British aircraft industry alive during the depression years.
the Hart changed air warfare for decades to come as well. it was the aircraft that forced fighters from prioritizing Maneuverability, to prioritizing Speed. (Japan missed the memo though)
I love the photo format allowing for better detail.
A very distinctive looking aircraft in that beautiful pointed nose and the recognisable tail plane that Hawker adopted ..
I want to tell you how much I appreciate your videos. Between Rex's Hangar, Ed Nash's Military Matters, and IHYLS, I'm filling in huge gaps in my knowledge of interwar and WW2 aircraft. Thank you very much for you meticulous work!
Could hardly be better. Amazing.
Nice documentaries Rex. Top notch. Thank you.
A handsome airframe!
I seem to remember reading that Fairy, had produced the Fairy Fox earlier, but with a US inline engine, with a higher speed than contemporary RAF aircraft, and this forced the RAF to go for the more advanced design
Do you suppose the bird painted a British roundel on its side
Excellent work, as usual! Many thanks! 🙂
Great informative video. Thanks to your work, I've developed an interest in planes I never thought I'd have... I even named my flock of chickens after planes from WW2 !
Hawker Hart
De Havilland Mosquito
Lockheed A-12/SR-71
"If we go fast enough, they can't shoot us down"
I never knew of the spectacular lineage of the hawker hart. Thank you.
So interesting, when you see this plane, developed new in the beginning of the 1930ties and then you have planes like the Messerschmidt BF109 just 5 years later.
i have seen the hawker demon at the shuttleworth collection. Lovely sound from that kestrel engine :)
Hart too fast for contempory fighters. Gets taken down by a bird of prey. Love it XD
Hi Rex - I subscribed some time back - you have a great channel and I wanted to compliment you on how interesting and well presented these looks at obscure and not so obscure aircraft very much are. Cheers and thanks!
Amazing how quickly technology moved forward during the 30s.
Seems like they should have gone with the kites. Nature's ultimate air force.
Almost 100 years ago. Time flies🎉
Thank you.
Surprised you didn't mention the Hind,Hector and Nimrod or even Hartbeeste among the family of this beautiful aircraft, enjoyed your post as usual though!
All that experience of licence building of aircraft would later become very, very important.
Thank you for another very informative video.
amazing, really that radar was invented around the same time fighters became fast enough to catch bombers, and air defense became a real possibility right before WW2.
Most excellent, thank you!
I have always thought that the Hawker Hurricane bore a definiate family similarity to the Hart generation of ancestors.
Very clearly so. The Hurricane looks like a Hart with an enclosed cockpit and the upper wing removed, pretty much.
Lots of plane builders in such a small area😮
Great video, Rex.
Thanks Rex
Great video.
Great one! Thanks
It's easy to see how Camm evolved this into the legendary Hurricane.
Idk a fuck abt airplanes and I never cared abt it but this guy made me love it
Can you have heightened apathy? You can't really work so hard at apathy.
Vigorously apathetic. Calmly anxious.
Watched from Jamaica.
Harry Hawker and Sydney Camm were a bludy good team Eh! Thanks m8!
500 lbs of bombs was pretty good for a single engine plane in the 1920's. A highly respected design
Great video, thank you. Definitely a fascinating and beautiful plane, now much over shadowed by many of its contemporary service fellows like the Tigermoth and swordfish.
Potential of a follow up developing the story of the hearts WWII service and service in commonwealth countries????
The Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England, has a fully airworthy original Hawker Hind.... I have seen it fly.
8:44 the Soviet R-5 that had the same exact purpose as Hart, and even commissioned in the same year was built in quantity of almost 7000 units.
Man I love aero engines.
The fact that a *Hawker* was brought down by a kite is quite hilarious. Also I believe that makes for the only plane brought down by a direct bird attack rather than an accidental bird collision. What an achievement, really.
Feel free to correct me, obviously.
beautiful planes
Tbf I couldn't catch that, and I have BIG hands and run FAST
Very good coverage of this great looking and performing biplane. I do wonder, though, if its superiority at the time didn't contribute to reducing the interest in developing monoplane light bombers. [I think the attack, leading to destruction of the aircraft, by a Kite is questionable as I include in my comment on @Justin Kipper' comments below.]
The RAF issued the specification for what would become the Battle in 1932, two years after the Hart entered service which is slightly slower than typical, which was the year or year after it entered service. E.g., for Spitfire replacement it was issued in 1939.
I believe there is one at the Pakistani Airforce museum close to the former RAF Drigh Road airbase
A few years before specification 12/26 was issued, another light reconnaissance bomber had proved to be virtually unreachable by the British fighters in service at the time; the Fairey Fox Mk I , another interesting and little known aircraft . The Fox prototype first flew at RAF Hendon on 3 January 1925
If this video came out in 1928/29 we’d all be saying….best plane of all time
The proponents of monoplanes and radial engines would have disagreed!
Siskin, Antelope, Horsley, Audax: the interwar British aviation industry and RAF were amazingly good at building aircraft. Their ability to name them, however, must be seriously questioned.
Kites FTW!
Hi Rex, I read somewhere that a number of Harts were modified during WW2 in India as an emergency stop gap one seat fighter. The RAF emptied the rear seat are and covered it over resulting in a 20mph increase in speed. As you can guess the pilots were not too keen in tangling with any Japanese aircraft that might come there way.
I need to find the book and extract and let you know.
Have you thought about doing a story on Harry Hawker?
Hi everyone 👋
Come, Nerevar. Come and look upon the Hart.
one ofmmy relatives survived a mid air collision between two of these
I'm sure the Hart was deerly beloved by its pilots...
Featured on a Led zep album cover circa 1971.
Want to know more about the Hart and 39 bomber Squ ? Aeroplane August issue 2011 Defenders of the North West Frontier 1931-mid 1939
You can just see it is a good plane.
The plans look like model planes I built in the late 50's and early 60's. No real difference in the design of model planes and real planes back then.
Amazing to think that just a few years later Hawker would develop this basic airframe into something with 50% more performance and four times the firepower, and in the face of disinterest and inertia by the Air Ministry..
RAF rearmament started in earnest in the early 1930s, such as the expansion in aerodromes and new hangars from 1934, monoplane fighter specifications in 1930, bomber specifications in 1932 (leading to the Wellington).
Yes, there was some apathy in the late 1920s, but apart from China, the geopolitical situation was fairly stable at that time, so there was no great rush in 1926-30, but even so the specification that led to the Hart at the time.
It's also worth bearing in mind that the UK economy was doing badly in the late 1920s even before the Great Depression due to going back onto the gold standard at the wrong exchange rate in 1924, so there wasn't a lot of funding available. Other victims were the Medium III tank and the No.III mk. 6 rifle that later became the No.4 mk.1.
Despite being in the grip of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, there was still a fairly good research and modernisation programme.
That same Air Ministry asked Handley Page to redesign the HP.56 so that it had 4 engines that were not the RR Vulture as they were concerned that the RR Vulture was not going to be successful. The aircraft Handley Page came up was the HP.57 or Halifax. So, the short-sighted Air Ministry got that right. They also asked for designs for fighters with at least 6 guns, whilst the 4 gun fighters were not yet in service. Short-sighted, my a##e.
There’s no change nearly 10 decades later.
@@alangordon3283 Actually it is very, very different. The only commonality is the shortage of money from the Treasury 😞
@@neiloflongbeck5705 well said. There are good historical sources for the drive to get the RAF ready to face Hitler down, and it's a fascinating tale of how much was got right - including not overdepending on offensive bomber power, in favour of fighter power for home defence.
This could have initiated a new branch of falconry: aeroplane hawking with trained kites. There was a proposal a few years ago for drone hawking with trained Harpy eagles, but I dont think anything came of it, though some experiments were carried out with another kind of eagle. Are you sure the attacker was a kite? The kite is regarded by falconers as slow and cowardly. Drone hawking on the other hand is a practical proposition provided the drones are not much larger than the eagles.There are still Ospreys in service aboard American carriers.
Odd to think that just 10 years after its mid 30s service life the RAF was starting to use jets, quite a leap. Also the Hawker Hurricane was essentially a slightly modified Hart fuselage , up engined and a monoplane.
Muito interessante! 🌟