Hawker Hart

The Hawker Hart was a British two-seat biplane light bomber designed in the 1920s by Sydney Camm and built by Hawker for the Royal Air Force. It answered a 1926 Air Ministry requirement for a high-performance light day bomber of all-metal construction, and the prototype, J9052, first flew in June 1928 with a Rolls-Royce Kestrel V12 engine. It was faster than most contemporary fighters, and it became the most widely used light bomber of its day: 992 were built as Harts, with production spread across Hawker, Armstrong Whitworth, Gloster, Vickers and others. Variants included a navalised version, the army co-operation Audax, the Demon fighter, the Hardy and the later Hind and Hector. Sweden, Yugoslavia, Estonia, South Africa and Canada also flew it. Obsolete by 1939, it played only minor roles in the war before being retired.