Hawker Tomtit

The Hawker Tomtit was a British training biplane of the late 1920s, designed by Sydney Camm to replace the elderly Avro 504N elementary trainers of the Royal Air Force. The 1927 requirement specified an Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose five-cylinder radial engine and an airframe whose frame was metal, and Camm produced a single-bay biplane of steel and duralumin tubes with automatic leading-edge slats and open tandem cockpits, the rear one fitted with a blind flying panel and hood. The prototype, J9772, was first flown by George Bulman from Brooklands in November 1928. Between 1928 and 1931, 24 were delivered to the RAF for evaluation, and some went to Canada and New Zealand. It lost the contract to the Avro Tutor, and Hawker, busy with the Hart family, could not build more. Civil Tomtits flew into the 1940s.