science

Hawker Hotspur

Hawker Hotspur is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hawker Hotspur rather than just read about it. In short: The Hawker Hotspur was a fighter aircraft developed between the wars for the Royal Air Force. It was designed in response to Air Ministry Specification F.9/35, which required a powered turret as the main armament to replace the Hawker Demon.

Key takeaways

Hawker Hotspur belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hawker Hotspur to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hawker Hotspur from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Hawker Hotspur was a fighter aircraft developed between the wars for the Royal Air Force. It was designed in response to Air Ministry Specification F.9/35, which required a powered turret as the main armament to replace the Hawker Demon. It was developed from the Hawker Henley, a competitor for the light bomber role but put into production as a target tug, and fitted with a Boulton-Paul powered four gun turret.

Design and development The Air Ministry released Specification F.9/35, which required a two-seater day and night "turret fighter" capable of 290 mph (470 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m) to British manufacturers in 1935. The aircraft was to have its armament (four machine guns) concentrated in a power-operated turret, and performance was to be only slightly less than that of other fighter designs being developed at that time. It was also to have enough fuel capacity to perform standing patrols. There were seven responses to the tender: Armstrong Whitworth (twin-engines, based on the AW.34), Boulton and Paul (P.82), Bristol (Type 147), Fairey, Gloster, Hawker, and Supermarine (Type 305). An eighth company, Vickers, did start on a design but did not provide it to the Air Ministry. As Hawker were already engaged in building the Henley prototype, their submission was based on that with a turret to be provided by Nash & Thompson. The Hawker, Boulton Paul and Armstrong Whitworth designs were judged the most promising and two prototypes of each were ordered though the Armstrong Whitworth design was not in the end built. In the same fashion as the Henley, the Hotspur used standard Hawker Hurricane outer wing panels. One prototype aircraft, K8309, was built in 1937, fitted with armament of four 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in a Boulton Paul dorsal turret plus one .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun mounted in the front fuselage. In 1937, the competing Boulton Paul received an order for 87 Defiants and Hawker for 389 Hotspurs (to be built at Avro). For naval use the Blackburn Roc turret fighter was also ordered though the 136 aircraft were to be built by Boulton Paul. In January 1938 an official opinion was that the Defiant and Hotspur would be equal in performance but Hawker had shown insufficient enthusiasm in the project. The Hotspur production order was cancelled, more Defiants ordered in their place. A second Hotspur prototype was cancelled. The completion of the prototype was delayed until 1938, by which time the rival Boulton Paul Defiant had already flown. The Hotspur first flew, at Brooklands, on 14 June 1938 with only a wooden mock-up of the turret and with ballast equivalent to the weight of armament. It was then tested at Martlesham Heath.

Testing and evaluation As Hawker was committed to the production of Hurricanes and sister company Gloster to Henley production, there was insufficient capacity to introduce another type and production was abandoned. The mock-up turret was removed and a cockpit fairing installed. Planned production by Avro to Specification 17/36 was abandoned and the prototype, less turret, was used at the RAE Farnborough from 1939 to test flap and dive brake configurations alongside the Hawker Henley until 1942. On 12 February following an engine problem during a gliding test the pilot was forced to make a gear up belly landing; while the damage was judged to be repairable the Hotspur was scrapped rather than incur the cost.

Specifications (Hotspur)

Data from Hawker Aircraft since 1920General characteristics Crew: 2 (pilot & gunner) Length: 32 ft 10.5 in (10.02 m) Wingspan: 40 ft 6 in (12.34 m) Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.22 m) Wing area: 342 sq ft (31.8 m2) Empty weight: 5,800 lb (2,630 kg) Max takeoff weight: 7,650 lb (3,470 kg) Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Merlin II V-12 inline piston engine, 1,030 hp (768 kW) Performance

Maximum speed: 316 mph (510 km/h, 275 kn) Service ceiling: 28,000 ft (8,500 m) Armament

Guns: ** 4 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in a Boulton-Paul turret. 1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun in nose

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hawker Hotspur

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hawker Hotspur claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hawker Hotspur before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hawker Hotspur ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hawker Hotspur

In research: Hawker Hotspur appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hawker Hotspur in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hawker Hotspur is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1930s British fighter aircraft, Aircraft first flown in 1938, Aircraft with retractable conventional landing gear, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hawker Hotspur outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hawker Hotspur in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hawker Hotspur means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hawker Hotspur out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hawker Hotspur in simple terms?

Why does Hawker Hotspur matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hawker Hotspur?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hawker Hotspur.