Hawker Duiker

The Hawker Duiker was an experimental fighter‑reconnaissance aircraft produced by Hawker Aircraft in the early 1930s. Conceived in 1930 as a response to the Royal Air Force’s call for a high‑speed, low‑altitude interceptor, the Duiker first flew on 12 March 1932 from Brooklands. Its most striking feature was the unconventional “duiker” wing arrangement – a sesquiplane layout in which the lower wing was markedly smaller than the upper, providing a blend of biplane lift and monoplane drag reduction. The airframe employed an all‑metal stressed‑skin construction, a departure from Hawker’s traditional wood‑and‑fabric designs, and was powered by a single Rolls‑Royce Kestrel XI engine delivering 640 hp. Retractable undercarriage, an enclosed cockpit with a bubble canopy, and an armament of two 20 mm Hispano cannons plus four .303 machine guns gave the Duiker a modern combat profile. Although only three prototypes were built before the programme was cancelled in 1934 in favour of the more conventional Hawker Hart series, the Duiker’s innovative wing geometry and metal structure influenced later Hawker designs such as the Hurricane. Its brief existence demonstrated Hawker’s willingness to explore radical concepts and contributed to the evolution of British fighter engineering in the pre‑war era.

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