Hawker Hart | The Bomber That No Fighter Could Catch (in 1930)

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.

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.)

[RexsHangar]

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.

[richardpentelow]

One can see the Hurricane shape in Hawkers work.

[rolanddutton]

One of the prettiest aircraft ever made in my opinion. Camm was a real genius, consistently designing world-class aircraft for nearly 4 decades.

[bigblue]

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.

[Dr_Jebus]

Hart too fast for contempory fighters. Gets taken down by a bird of prey. Love it XD

[andrewhotston]

One of the loveliest looking aeroplanes. Great video. Thanks.

[majorbloodnok]

A beautiful aeroplane and one of my favourites; thanks for this video.

[martinwarner]

You are doing aircraft history a great service. Thank you for the super video. Peace be unto you.

[simong]

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.

[robertguttman]

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.

[hamish]

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.

[AgentTasmania]

Seem to be a lot of bombers that were very briefly faster than extant fighters

[peterdavy]

One of the most elegant aeroplanes ever put in the air by the RAF. If you look, you can see the Hurricane in her.

[philsharp]

An elegant design for the era. Another plane to add to the gallery "If it looks right, it will fly right".

[greenseaships]

It's easy to see how Camm evolved this into the legendary Hurricane.

[stephenremington]

Hawker Hart, oh deer! nice plane, and you know you've improved an engine when you've knocked 60 pounds off the weight!

[charlesseymour]

I love the photo format allowing for better detail.

[nocount]

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".

[Rincypoopoo]

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...

[edstoro]

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 !!!!