| The rapidly changing world of the 1930s forced the British government to take stock of its defences in relation to the growing military capability of Germany. In 1933 Winston Churchill warned Parliament of Germany's latest path and by 1935 expansion programmes for the British armed forces had been agreed. The Hind light bomber was one of the types produced for quick delivery to the RAF, based on the Hart and therefore needing little new development, although a number of improvements were introduced as the result of long experience with the Hart.
The first prototype was in fact a modified Hart and first flew on 12 September 1934 at Brooklands. Production covered no less than 528 aircraft, although with the delivery of modern monoplane bombers a number of the final Hinds on the production lines for the RAF were completed as dual-control trainers, a new role which many were eventually to fulfil. Records show that from even the first batch of 20 Hinds, General Aircraft was later to convert nine into trainers. Nine foreign users of the Hind (new and ex-RAF aircraft) included Latvia, New Zealand, Persia and South Africa.
ENGINE | 1 x Rolls-Royce Kestrel V, 477kW |
WEIGHTS |
Take-off weight | 2403 kg | 5298 lb |
Empty weight | 1475 kg | 3252 lb |
DIMENSIONS |
Wingspan | 11.35 m | 37 ft 3 in |
Length | 9.02 m | 30 ft 7 in |
Height | 3.23 m | 11 ft 7 in |
Wing area | 32.33 m2 | 348.00 sq ft |
PERFORMANCE |
Max. speed | 299 km/h | 186 mph |
Ceiling | 8045 m | 26400 ft |
Range | 692 km | 430 miles |
ARMAMENT | 2 x 7.7mm machine-guns, 220kg of bombs |
| A three-view drawing (678 x 546) |
Dave Griffiths, e-mail, 30.04.2012 17:06 I have a propeller with a brass plate on thar reads; WATTS B 4 11 KESTREL 11 S RH D.10.75 P.12.13 C1795 MAY 41512 1936 Trying to fine exatly which aircraft its off reply | JJ, e-mail, 23.04.2010 18:15 Correct, Aviastar. Neither did Gladiators have an axle between the undercarriage, V-shaped undercarriage legs, N-shaed inter plane struts, an open cockpit or carry a gunner! Gladiator, my eye. For the record - no RAF operated Hind /Hart variants were radial engined but radial engined aircraft were built for a number of other countries including Persia, Iraq, Egypt, Sweden and Latvia. ONe of the Swedish machines is still extant: www.ipmsstockholm.org /photos /detail_hart_01.jpg reply | www.aviastar.org, 25.07.2009 15:32 To Tim:
You are wrong, it's a Persian Hind (source: Hawker Aircraft since 1920) reply | Tim, e-mail, 29.05.2008 02:23 I think the top photo is not of a Hind but of a Gloster Gladiator. None of the Hawker bi-plane bombers were radial engined. reply |
| Nelson Smith, e-mail, 08.12.2006 22:49 I'm looking for the "leading particulars" for this aircraft. Can you help me? Thank you reply |
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