| Progenitor of the famous Hawk series of fighters, the
PW-8 (the "PW" prefix indicating "Pursuit Water-cooled")
was a single-seat two-bay fighter biplane of
mixed construction - plywood-covered wooden wings
and fabric-skinned welded steel tube fuselage -
powered by a 440hp Curtiss D-12 water-cooled 12-
cylinder Vee engine. Three prototypes were ordered on
27 April 1923, and the first of these, flown in the previous
January, was retroactively designated XPW-8 on
14 May 1924. The second prototype, flown in March
1924, embodied some aerodynamic refinement and provided
the basis for the production PW-8, 25 examples
being ordered on 25 September 1923 and delivered between
June and August 1924. The PW-8 featured wing
surface radiators and armament normally comprised
two 7.62mm machine guns. A turbo-supercharger
was experimentally fitted to the second production
aircraft, and the third prototype (XPW-8A), delivered
in February 1924, featured 9.14m span
single-bay wings and a revised radiator arrangement.
It was subsequently fitted with a tunnel-type radiator
(as the XPW-8A) and, in December 1924, with 9.60m span wings of tapered planform and Clark Y aerofoil section as the XPW-8B. It thus became, in
effect, the prototype P-1 Hawk.
 | A three-view drawing (1280 x 914) |
WEIGHTS |
Take-off weight | 1429 kg | 3150 lb |
Empty weight | 994 kg | 2191 lb |
DIMENSIONS |
Wingspan | 9.75 m | 32 ft 0 in |
Length | 6.86 m | 23 ft 6 in |
Height | 2.69 m | 9 ft 10 in |
Wing area | 26.66 m2 | 286.97 sq ft |
PERFORMANCE |
Max. speed | 270 km/h | 168 mph |
Range | 708 km | 440 miles |
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|  COMPANY PROFILE All the World's Rotorcraft
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