Hawker Duiker

The Hawker Duiker was an unusual and unsuccessful British aircraft, the first design at Hawker under its new chief designer, Captain Thomson, in 1922. It was built to Air Ministry Specification 7/22 for a corps reconnaissance aircraft to support the Army, at a time when the biplane dominated, and it was a parasol-wing monoplane of all-wood construction. Much of its equipment and many parts came from Vickers, which shared the Brooklands airfield with Hawker. The slightly swept wing caused instability at all speeds and even led to the wing separating from its rear struts. The aircraft had a two-man crew and first flew with an Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engine, later replaced by a Bristol Jupiter IV, in July 1923. Only one was built.