The Hawker P.V.4 was a 1930s British biplane aircraft built by Hawker Aircraft in competition for a government order for a general-purpose military aircraft.

Design and development

In 1931, the British

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of Stat ...

issued a their Specification G.4/31 for a "Standard General Purpose" aircraft. The duties were to include liaison,

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

(both day and night), dive bombing,

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, ...

bombing, and

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 ( skirmishe ...

. As none of the competing prototypes ordered for the competition could carry out all of the roles, and as individually aircraft of the Hawker Hart series could perform most of these duties, with the Hart having excellent handling in a dive,Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. . Hawkers decided to base their entry on the Hind development of the Hart. They built the P.V.4 as a private venture (''i.e.'', with their own money) as a two-seat light bomber; although the bomb load of 570 lb (259 kg) was the same as the Hart, the reinforced fuselage and wings allowed the P.V.4 to dive with this load.

Testing

The P.V.4 was first flown from the

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields ...

airfield on 6 December 1934. The

Bristol Pegasus The Bristol Pegasus is a British nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial aero engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from th ...

III engine was initially used, but this was changed to the Pegasus X in 1935. In trials, it proved to be the only one of the competitors to be fully suitable for dive-bombing; unfortunately, because of its cross-axle undercarriage, it could not carry a torpedo. The dive bombing duty was dropped from the specification, however, so the aircraft had little extra to offer and it lost out to the Vickers Wellesley monoplane which entered production. Only one aircraft was built. This was eventually used for spinning tests, and then sent to

Bristol Aeroplane The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable a ...

to be used as an engine test bed, with several other engines being installed. The

Finnish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment = 159 , equipment_label ...

in the 1930s, evaluated different dive bombers including the Hawker P.V.4, eventually choosing the Fokker C.X light bomber. The sole P.V.4 prototype was struck off charge on 29 March 1939.

Specification (with the Pegasus X engine)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Hannah, Donald. ''Hawker FlyPast Reference Library''. Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK: Key Publishing Ltd., 1982. . * James, Derek N. ''Hawker, an Aircraft Album No. 5''. New York: Arco Publishing Company, 1973. . (First published in the UK by Ian Allan in 1972.) * Mason, Francis K. ''Hawker Aircraft since 1920.'' London: Putnam & Company, 3rd revised edition, 1991. . * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. .

External links

Hawker P.V.4
– British Aircraft Directory {{Hawker Aircraft aircraft 1930s British bomber aircraft PV04 Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1934