Hawker Nimrod

History of Hawker Nimrod

The 1920s ushered in a whole new era for aviation, as it flourished in the years following World War II. However, before the all-metal aircraft of the 1930s had a place in aviation history, there was a period of "hybrid construction" biplanes, combining metal structures and fabric skins.

A series of such biplanes were built for the Hawke Group in the decades leading up to World War II (1939-1945), which became one of the 1928 Hawke Hoopoe.

Hoopoe was Hawke's first foray into single-seat, single-engine naval fighter jets when it was a private company. However, the design lacked performance and work to further improve it was too late as attention was focused on the Hawker "Nimrod" - whose design is credited to Sydney Camm - for a possible sale to the Fleet Air Force (FAA).

While the Nimrod follows the design line of the classic Hawker Fury in appearance, it is more closely related to the aforementioned Hoopoe. As expected, the metal structure meshes with fabric skin to complete it, and a single-cabin, unequal-span biplane wing arrangement is used. The pilot sits in an open-air cockpit located just below and aft of the upper wing. The landing gear carries a pair of wheels below the center mass of the aircraft, and the frame is supported at the tail by a tail skid.

The engine is mounted on the nose as usual and drives a two-bladed propeller. The rear wing consists of a conventional arrangement with a vertical rear wing and a pair of horizontal planes.

The Nimrod will be armed with 2 x .303 Vickers machine guns in a fixed forward firing position above the nose (just before the pilot position). The cannon was designed to be fired through the shattering gears through the rotating propeller blades.

In addition to stationary weapons, the fuselage can carry up to 4 x 20 lb conventionally thrown bombs.

Spec 16/30 covers the new Nimrod fighter, which first flew in 1930, powered by a 477 hp Rolls-Royce "Kestrel II MS" engine. The production-quality version then flew for the first time on October 14, 1931, and 35 were ordered by the FAA.

Due to the flexibility of the Nimrod design, land-based aircraft can be converted into seaplane form with relative ease. This is evidenced by the second completed production quality table with seaplane landing gear (dual pontoon arrangement).

The first production models were named "Nimrod I" and had a total number of 57. This was followed by 28 "Nimrod II" models, which switched to a standard Rolls-Royce "Kestrel V" engine with 608 hp for improved performance. The wings are also slightly swept back for better aerodynamic efficiency.

The Nimrod series lives a healthy life at the FAA. Introduced in 1933, it had a career that lasted until May 1939, before being retired from the Royal Navy as newer and better fighter designs emerged.

The design was judged in both Japan (known as "AXH") and Portugal, while Denmark took a pair and produced another ten units locally. Nimrod's Danish operations finally ceased in August 1943.

For the FAA, Nimrod introduced a total of 11 squadrons.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes