Hawker Hector

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Hector
Type	Army cooperation
Manufacturer	Hawker Aircraft
Maiden flight	14 February 1936
Number built	179
Developed from	Hawker Hart

The Hawker Hector was intended as a replacement for the Hawker Audax Army co-operation aircraft. Because of the demand for Rolls-Royce Kestrel engines required for the Hawker Hind program, an alternative power plant was specified. Consequently the Napier Dagger III was used.

Although both the design and the building of the prototype was done by Hawkers, the subsequent production aircraft were built by Westland Aircraft in Yeovil, Devon. The prototype first flew on on 14 February 1936 with George Bulman as pilot. One prototype and 178 production aircraft were built. Thirteen of these were supplied to Eire in 1941-2.

The aircraft were later used by the RAF (in 1940) as target-towers, and for towing the General Aircraft Hotspur training glider.

Irish Air Corps examples were received after the Dunkirk Evacuation. In general they were in poor condition. They were sold by the British War Office to the Irish Free State upon requests for aircraft. The Irish military were wholly unprepared for major warfare, but still relied almost totally on military supplies from Britain. The defence of Ireland was also in the British interest, but with the Battle of Britain raging in the skies, could afford to sell the Irish Government nothing better than the Hector. The type was deeply unpopular with ground crews due to the extremely complicated nature of the engine, which had 24 cylinders, and therefore 48 spark plugs and 96 valves, all of which required frequent maintenance.

Contents 1 Variants 2 Operators 3 Specifications (Hector) 4 References 5 See also

[edit] Variants

• Hector Mk I : Two-seat army co-operation aircraft for the RAF.

[edit] Operators

 Ireland

• Irish Air Corps

 United Kingdom

• Royal Air Force
  • No. 2 Squadron RAF
  • No. 4 Squadron RAF
  • No. 13 Squadron RAF
  • No. 26 Squadron RAF
  • No. 53 Squadron RAF
  • No. 59 Squadron RAF
  • No. 296 Squadron RAF
  • No. 602 Squadron RAF
  • No. 612 Squadron RAF
  • No. 613 Squadron RAF
  • No. 614 Squadron RAF
  • No. 615 Squadron RAF

[edit] Specifications (Hector)

Data from Hawker Aircraft since 1920

General characteristics

• Crew: Two
• Length: 29 ft 9½ in (9.06 m)
• Wingspan: 36 ft 11½ in (11.26 m)
• Height: 10 ft 5 in (3.18 m)
• Wing area: 346 ft² ^[1] (33.1 m²)
• Empty weight: 3,389 lb (1,537 kg)
• Loaded weight: 4,910 lb (2,227 kg)
• Powerplant: 1× Napier Dagger III 24-cylinder air-cooled H-block engine, 1,000 hp (750 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 162 knots (187 mph, 301 km/h) at 6,560 ft (1,999 m)
• Range: 261 nm (300 mi,^[1] 483 km)
• Service ceiling 24,000 ft (7,815 m)
• Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 5 min 40 s

Armament

• 1 × forward-firing .303 in Vickers machine gun Mk.V
• 1 × .303 in Lewis gun in the rear cockpit on a Hawker mount
• Mountings for a camera, flares, and two 112 lb (50 kg) bombs (or containers)

[edit] References

• Francis K Mason, Hawker Aircraft since 1920 (Putnam, 1961)
• Mason, Francis K. The British Bomber since 1914. London:Putnam. 1994. ISBN 0 85177 861 5.

[edit] See also

List of aircraft of the Royal Air Force
Related development Hawker Hart
Hawker Audax

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