The Hawker Hedgehog was a three-seat

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

biplane, to be used for naval scouting, produced to meet Air Ministry Specification 37/22. It was designed in 1923, and had its first flight the next year, piloted by F. P. Raynham. The crew consisted of the pilot, an observer and an air gunner. Its construction was typical of the period: a wooden structure covered with fabric. The powerplant was a nine-cylinder Bristol Jupiter IV radial engine driving a two-bladed wooden propeller. While testing was successful, on completion of the flight tests, the project was cancelled. This was due to the Hedgehog's performance not being sufficiently better than the existing aircraft used for naval reconnaissance, the

Avro Bison The Avro 555 Bison was a British single-engined fleet spotter/reconnaissance aircraft built by Avro. Development and design The Bison was designed to meet British Specification 3/21 for a carrier-based fleet spotter and reconnaissance aircra ...

and

Blackburn Blackburn The Blackburn R-1 Blackburn was a 1920s British single-engine fleet spotter/ reconnaissance aircraft built by Blackburn Aircraft. History The Blackburn was developed to meet a naval requirement ( Specification 3/21) for a carrier-based recon ...

. Consequently, only one prototype was built. The armament of the aircraft was one fixed forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm)

Vickers gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and o ...

and one .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun on a Scarff ring in the rear cockpit. The aircraft was fitted with floats that contained wheels to enable use as an amphibian. The wings could be folded, so that the width was reduced to 16 ft 7½ in (4.87 m) for storage.

Specifications

References

* Mason, Francis K. ''Hawker Aircraft since 1920'' London:Putnam, 1991. . {{Hawker Aircraft aircraft 1920s British military reconnaissance aircraft

Hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introductio ...

Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Carrier-based aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1924