Hawker P.V.3
| Hawker P.V.3 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Day and night fighter |
| Manufacturer | Hawker |
| Designer | Sydney Camm |
| First flight | 15 June 1934 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Hawker P.V.3 was a British single-engined biplane fighter prototype of the 1930s. Only a single example was built, the Gloster Gladiator being selected instead to fulfill the requirement to which it was designed.
In 1930 the British Air Ministry circulated a draft version of Specification F.7/30 for a heavily armed day and night fighter around likely manufacturers. The new fighter was to have a speed of at least 250 mph (400 km/h) and a good climb rate. As it was expected that the high speeds of both the fighter and its prospective targets would only allow short bursts of fire to hit the target, an armament of four Vickers machine guns was required, double that of earlier fighters. Although not a requirement of the specification, the Air Ministry encouraged the use of the new steam-cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine.
To meet this requirement, Hawker Aircraft submitted two designs, one a monoplane and the other a biplane, but both were rejected by the Air Ministry when contracts were awarded for prototypes in 1932, orders going to Blackburn Aircraft (for its F.3 and Westland Aircraft (the Westland F.7/30). Despite this rejection, Hawker decided to construct a single example of its biplane design, the Hawker P.V.3 as a Private Venture without an Air Ministry order. The P.V.3, design of which was led by Hawker's Chief Designer Sidney Camm, was an enlarged development of Hawker's Fury fighter, powered by the preferred Goshawk. Like the Fury, it had an all-metal structure with fabric covered wings (which unlike the Fury were swept back), tail and aft fuselage, with a metal skinned forward fuselage. Steam condensers for the Goshawk engine were fitted in the upper wing, supplemented by a smaller retractable condenser under the fuselage. It had a fixed tailwheel undercarriage with spats covering the mainwheels to reduce drag. Two machine guns were mounted at the top of the nose cowling, with two more machine guns mounted one on each side of the nose.
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