Hawker - Tomtit

The Hawker Tomtit is an aircraft from the 1920s.

The Royal Air Force in 1927 required a replacement for their elementary trainers, the existing Avro 504s. They specified that the power plant should be an Armstrong-Sidderley Mongoose engine, and the design should "have regards the elimination of the Woodworking Fitter trades". This required Sidney Camm, who was chief designer at Hawkers, to provide a design of an all-metal structured aircraft, the Tomtit. An initial batch of ten aircraft were ordered for the RAF. As a private venture, a civil version was built. This had a Cirrus engine fitted, although later one aircraft was converted to having a Wolseley A.R.7. engine.

The Tomtit had a steel & duralumin tubular construction. The spars were made of tubular dumbbell sections. Wing slots of the Handley-Page type were fitted to the leading edges. The then-new blind-flying panel was fitted in the cockpit, so night flying instruction was possible. The Mongoose engine was a radial five cylinder type, while the Cirrus was a four cylinder in-line type.

The prototype was first flown by George Bulman in November 1928. After the first batch of ten, the RAF ordered two more batches of six & eight respectively. Five civil version were built, although eight of the RAF Tomtit were eventually placed on the Civil Register. Another two Tomtits were sold to Canada and four to New Zealand. It is probable that more Tomtits could have been sold, as it was very well received by their pilots, but Hawkers were heavily involved in the production of the Hawker Hart. Consequently they did not have the capacity to manufacture other aircraft. One Tomtit still exists. It was obtained & restored by Hawkers in 1949, and in 1960, it was handed over to the Shuttleworth Collection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Tomtit