Hector

The Hawker Hector was a British two‑seat army‑cooperation aircraft produced by Hawker Aircraft in the late 1930s. Designed as a successor to the Hawker Audax, the Hector first flew on 23 February 1936 and entered service with the Royal Air Force the following year. Its conventional biplane layout featured a robust steel‑tube fuselage, wooden wings and a fixed, spatted undercarriage, while power was supplied by a 645 hp (481 kW) Rolls‑Royce Kestrel I V‑12 engine driving a two‑blade propeller. The aircraft could be equipped with a forward‑firing .303‑in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun for the pilot, a rear defensive gun for the observer, and provisions for light bomb loads of up to 250 lb, making it suitable for reconnaissance, artillery spotting and light ground‑attack missions. Although only 298 Hectors were built before production ceased in 1939, the type filled an important gap in the RAF’s pre‑war order of battle, providing reliable performance in the harsh conditions of overseas postings such as the Middle East and India. Its service was brief, as faster monoplane designs like the Hawker Audax’s successor, the Hawker Hind, quickly supplanted it, yet the Hector remains a notable example of the transitional biplane era on the eve of World War II.