Hawker Hind

The Hawker Hind was a British inter-war light bomber produced by Hawker for the Royal Air Force, developed from the Hart day bomber of 1931. An improved Hart defined by Specification G.7/34, it was bought as an interim aircraft while monoplane bombers such as the Fairey Battle were still in development. Its structure mixed steel and duralumin under fabric, and it differed from the Hart in having a Rolls-Royce Kestrel V engine and refinements such as the cut-down rear cockpit developed for the Demon. The prototype, K2915, was built very quickly and first flew on 12 September 1934; the first production Hind flew on 4 September 1935 and it entered service that November, eventually equipping 20 RAF bomber squadrons. Exports went to Afghanistan, Persia, Latvia, Portugal, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, and examples survive in museums.