Hawker Tomtit

infobox Aircraft
name = Tomtit
type = trainer
logo =
manufacturer = Hawker Aircraft



caption = Airworthy Hawker Tomtit at the Shuttleworth Collection
designer =
first flight = November 1928
introduction =
retired =
status =
primary user =
more users =
produced =
number built = 35
unit cost =
developed from =
variants with their own articles =

The Hawker Tomtit is a British training biplane from the late 1920s.

Design and development

The Royal Air Force in 1927 required a replacement for their current elementary trainers, the elderly Avro 504Ns. They specified that the power plant should be an Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose engine, a radial five cylinder type, and the design should "have regards to the elimination of the Woodworking Fitter trades". In other words the airframe, though not its covering had to be metal. This led Sydney Camm, then chief designer at Hawkers to design the Tomtit, a single bay biplane whose frame was of steel and duralumin tubes. The spars were made of tubular dumbbell sections, the whole aircraft fabric covered. Automatic slots of the Handley-Page type were fitted to the leading edges of the upper wing. It had the standard fixed main wheel and tail-skid undercarriage of its day. The engine was uncowled.

Instructor and trainee sat in open tandem cockpits. The latter, at the rear, was provided with the then-new blind flying panel and a cockpit hood was fitted so blind flying instruction was possible. The RAF Tomtits had 150 h.p. Mongoose IIIC motors. The prototype was first flown by George Bulman in November 1928.

Hawker also produced five civil registered Tomtits [Jackson pp268-71] . The first two of these started with Mongoose IIIA engine and the third with an upright in-line 115 h.p. A.D.C. Cirrus Major. It was thought that this latter, lower power engine choice might appeal more to public sporting owners. Three of this group were later owned by Wolseley, who fitted them with their cowled A.R.9, Aquarius and Aries radial motors.

Production and service

Between 1928 and 1931 of twenty-four aircraft were delivered [Mason pp. 395-6 (in 1st ed)] to the RAF for evaluation. After the first batch of ten, two more batches of six and eight aircraft respectively were ordered. The competition included the eventual winner, the Avro Tutor. Military Tomtits were sold elsewhere [Jackson p268] , two to Canada and four to New Zealand [http://www.adf-serials.com/nz-serials/nz50.shtml] . Despite its failure to win the RAF contract, 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 and its many variants. Consequently they did not have the capacity to manufacture other aircraft. The Cirrus powered machine had turned out to be both rather underpowered and lacking the control precision of the standard aircraft. In 1935 some nine ex-RAF aircraft joined the original five on the civil register [Jackson pp542-3] [British civil reg] . They were used by individuals and clubs as sports and training machines.

Variants

;Tomtit: Two-seat training, club, sports and personal aircraft.;Tomtit Mk I: Two-seat primary trainer for the RAF.

Military Operators

;flag|Canada|1921
* Royal Canadian Air Force 2 aircraft.
** No. 7 Squadron RCAF
** No. 12 Squadron RCAF;NZL
* Royal New Zealand Air Force 4 aircraft.
** Pilot Training School;UK
* Royal Air Force 24 aircraft.
** No. 24 Squadron RAF
** No. 3 Flying Training School
** Central Flying School

pecifications (Tomtit)

aircraft specifications
plane or copter?= plane
jet or prop?= prop
ref= [Thetford pp272-3]
crew= two, instructor plus trainee
capacity=
length main= 23 ft 8 in
length alt= 7.21 m
span main= 28 ft 6 in
span alt= 9.70 m
height main= 8 ft 4 in
height alt= 2.54 m
area main= 238 ft²
area alt= 22.1 m²
airfoil=
empty weight main= 1,100 lb
empty weight alt= 499 kg
loaded weight main= 1,750 lb
loaded weight alt= 793.8 kg
useful load main=
useful load alt=
max takeoff weight main=
max takeoff weight alt=
more general=

engine (prop)=Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose IIIC
type of prop= 5-cylinder radial engine
number of props=1
power main= 150 hp
power alt= 112 kW
power original=

max speed main= 108 knots
max speed alt= 124 mph, 200 km/h
cruise speed main=
cruise speed alt=
never exceed speed main=
never exceed speed alt=
stall speed main=
stall speed alt=
range main= 300 nm
range alt= 350 mi, 563 km
ceiling main= 19,500 ft
ceiling alt= 5,944 m
climb rate main= 1000 ft/min
climb rate alt= 5.1 m/s
loading main=
loading alt=
thrust/weight=
power/mass main=
power/mass alt=
more performance=
armament=
avionics=

urvivors

One Tomtit still flies, the ex-RAF "K1786" "G-AFTA". This, the last RAF machine joined the civil register in April 1939. During the war it was flown by Alex Henshaw and gained a Spitfire windscreen and faired headrest, but was aquired and restored by Hawkers in 1949 where it became the mount of the their test pilot Neville Duke. In 1960 it was handed over to the Shuttleworth Collection, who returned it to its original colours in 1967.

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Jackson, J.J. "British Civil Aircraft 1919-72: Volume II". London: Putnam and Company, 1973. ISBN 0-85177-813-5
* Mason, Francis K. "Hawker Aircraft since 1920." London: Putnam & Company, 3rd revised edition 1991. ISBN 0-85177-839-9.
*Thetford, Owen. "Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1919-57" 1957. London: Putnam.
* Hannah, Donald. "Hawker FlyPast Reference Library". Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK: Key Publishing Ltd., 1982. ISBN 0-946219-01-X.
* James, Derek N. "Hawker, an Aircraft Album No. 5". New York: Arco Publishing Company, 1973. ISBN 0-668-02699-5. (First published in the UK by Ian Allan in 1972.)

External links

* British civil register http://www.caa.co.uk
* [http://www.shuttleworth.org/shuttleworth_aircraft_details.asp?ID=20 Shuttleworth Collection, Hawker Tomtit]