Hawker Hart | The Bomber That No Fighter Could Catch (in 1930)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 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.)
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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.
Do you suppose the bird painted a British roundel on its side
You are doing aircraft history a great service. Thank you for the super video. Peace be unto you.
Hawker Hart
De Havilland Mosquito
Lockheed A-12/SR-71
"If we go fast enough, they can't shoot us down"
Tbf I couldn't catch that, and I have BIG hands and run FAST
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.
Can you have heightened apathy? You can't really work so hard at apathy.
Vigorously apathetic. Calmly anxious.
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.
I can't make the bird attack story work in my head. Unless it was attacking the pilot himself, which would have been mentioned I would think, I can't figure out how the bird could have done enough damage to the plane to knock it out of commission. The story seems fishy and I wonder if it was a practical joke in a report filed by the pilot or some sort of weird attempt to deflect blame for damaging the plane in a less goofy, more incompetent way. The "humorous report" angle isn't altogether unheard of in that period. A German U-boat captain known for practical jokes reported seeing a "sea monster" that startled the crew, for instance, in the boat's official logbook.
Unless the airplane was doing nothing but slow, tight turns, it's obvious that the story was a fabrication. In level flight, it would not be possible for a bird to keep up with the speed of the airplane, much less conduct multiple of swooping attacks upon it.
@@Justin_Kipper Quite so. NO Kite (bird) can flay at anything like the necessary speed. Peregrine falcons can dive at speeds that would allow them to overtake a Hart but are much too small (and sensible!) to attack one. An Imperial Eagle could certainly do enough damage to the fabric to seriously affect handling capability, especially in turbulent air. However, even knowing these and similar size eagles well, I cannot see how it could make multiple attacks - after the first it would be left far behind. There WAS a story somewhere in a Boy's Own Annual of the 1930s with this episode and even an exciting artist's impression of the encounter.😁
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.
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.
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
Hart too fast for contempory fighters. Gets taken down by a bird of prey. Love it XD
One of the most elegant aeroplanes ever put in the air by the RAF. If you look, you can see the Hurricane in her.
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.
A very handsome machine. No doubt the experience with it contributed to the structure of the Hurricane.
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)
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 .
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!
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 .
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.
Hands down, the prettiest biplane.
Looking forward to anything to do with inter-war military aviation , my favorite era for outlandish airplanes
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.
Seems like they should have gone with the kites. Nature's ultimate air force.
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.
Bomber so fast no fighter can catch it.
Ok, so remove the "bomber" features and make a fighter out of it.... (Demon/Fury)
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.
It's easy to see how Camm evolved this into the legendary Hurricane.
Rarely I have seen a more enjoyable video, or such a beautiful aircraft.
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".
I believe there is one at the Pakistani Airforce museum close to the former RAF Drigh Road airbase
An elegant design for the era. Another plane to add to the gallery "If it looks right, it will fly right".
The Kite taking down a Hart must bring ancestral PTSD to all the Aussies, at least this one wasn't an Emu
If I close my eyes and think "British biplane" I think exactly this aircraft and or a Moth.
So who is copying who's delivery: you or Drachinifel 😵💫
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 have seen the hawker demon at the shuttleworth collection. Lovely sound from that kestrel engine :)
Seems a waste in all those hearts by 1937
Hi everyone 👋
Hi 👋
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.
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!
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 how quickly technology moved forward during the 30s.
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
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 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.
I cannot thank you enough for doing this vid--absolutely
British fighter bombers
Bristol F2B
Hawker Hart
De Havilland Mosquito
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)
You did rather gloss over the distinct and individual siblings of the Hart, even showing an Audax whilst talking about the Hart. Hopefully your upcoming video will address this with suitable details. Still, an interesting video that gave me some new information.
Bird beat down…. Dying! 😂
Have you thought about doing a story on Harry Hawker?
A state of the art (at the time) taken out by a bird? I think I have heard other succh stories like that...
The state of the Hart wasn't pretty afterwards, I'd imagine.
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.
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 !
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!
Beautiful aircraft.
Want to know more about the Hart and 39 bomber Squ ? Aeroplane August issue 2011 Defenders of the North West Frontier 1931-mid 1939
Hawker Hartbees 851 (license built Hart in South Africa) survives at the Saxon South African National Museum of History in Johannesburg. A veteran of the East African campaign against the Italians where the SAAF used many obsolescent and even converted German civil aircraft to get the job done.
Flown famously by the irreverent youngsters of 40 Sqn SAAF Army Cooperation Sqn. A flight The Sultan of Osmandella (aka Lt Ginsberg) the Mug of Moyale and the Wanderer of Wajir. Their competitors B flight the Bombay Bazaar made up of the Sheik of El Wak, the DC of Derkali and the Buna Kid. All jealously looked after and guarded from the local wildlife by a released Somali murderer Bokai who had been awaiting formal trial by the Italians.
They engaged in dogfights with CR42’s, attempted to intercept Caproni and Savoia bombers (far too slow!) and so mainly carried out bombing and strafing.
Well, wrt the Hind making all existing RAF fighters irrelevant, The RN faced a similar issue when HMS Dreadnought commissioned: all existing RN battleships lost relevancy
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????
Really appreciate your level of professionalism in your work but would like to ask one favour of your good self.
Please pronounce kilometre correctly, it is the same as kilogram (kilo-gram as in 1,000 grams), i.e. kilo-metre, as in 1,000 metres and not kilom-etre, as in not correct.
Thank you.
The simple fact that the 'ministry' could and would just willy nilly adjust the requirements when they got a good aircraft, shows the value of these 'requirements'. Less than a pile of steaming warm dog poo. One of the many reasons why I have never and will never ever submit to any requirements from the prune. Besides, they have zero idea what I can build. They are in the 17th century and my company is solidly in the 21st.
😂lol how would have the hart come up against the Japanese zero in combat??? Lol thanks for the Spitfire corsair & p 40 !!!!
Unlike the usual British way, this thing was at the time the best of Britain in all aspects. To this day the Hart is pretty, practical, potent and seriously nice to fly. Normally we expect the British so sink everything they ever attempt in a ball of fire. (Titanic, Comet, Austin, the Empire etc.)
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.
In my native language, we call the "Kite Birds", what translates into English as "Storm Birds"
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.
These late '30's fighter biplanes, the apogee of the types really were beautiful aircraft.
The heavy bombers and transports not so.
Anyone who can’t find the exact unit of measurement but has a rough though accurate enough approximation to the closest variable: ish.
Think...maybe the depression also had something to do with it....that engine issue.
500 lbs of bombs was pretty good for a single engine plane in the 1920's. A highly respected design
All that experience of licence building of aircraft would later become very, very important.
A very distinctive looking aircraft in that beautiful pointed nose and the recognisable tail plane that Hawker adopted ..
So the UK actually achieved what France wanted to do. They produced one plane that did almost everything!
Where did the opening illustration come from, Rex?
Looks like a model box cover!
Could hardly be better. Amazing.
i wonder since around the time talked at the start of the vdeo (the conservative officers) was that the same thing for france or france tried to think out of the box? (i say thta bc as a french man i want to know more about my country's history)
Borman was a most unfortunate surname for an RAF flyer although I assume that the English version had one n rather than the two of the elusive Martin Bormann?
A handsome airframe!
So tis is the only plane to loose a dogfight agains a real life bird of prey that surived the ordeal and not a bird strike kamikaze collision.
Harry Hawker and Sydney Camm were a bludy good team Eh! Thanks m8!
How much damage could a single .303 do? Did they aim at the enemies pilot?
Thanks very much for another very important piece of British aviation history.
If I am not mistaken Iran used these until the late 1940's.
What a beauty.
The Falcon engine is not inline. It is a V12
I suppose that distinguishes it from a radial engine, but it is definitely annoying, especially when there were plenty of actual inline aircraft engines around at the time.
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!
Embarrassing when you think of what we were really capable of
one ofmmy relatives survived a mid air collision between two of these
Muito interessante! 🌟