The Hawker Hector was a British biplane army co-operation and liaison aircraft of the late 1930s; it served with the Royal Air Force and saw brief combat in the Battle of France in May 1940. Some Hectors were later sold to Ireland. It was named after the Trojan prince Hector.
Design and development
The Hector was intended as a replacement for the Hawker Audax army co-operation aircraft.

The airframe was based on that of the Hawker Hind, but making use of the more powerful (and heavier) 805 hp 24-cylinder Napier Dagger ‘H-engine’. Because the increased engine weight moved the aircraft centre of gravity forward, the Hector’s upper wing was unswept, unlike all other Hawker Hart derivative aircraft.

The design and the building of the prototype was done by Hawker but production aircraft were built by Westland Aircraft in Yeovil, Somerset. The prototype first flew on 14 February 1936 with George Bulman as pilot. One prototype and 178 production aircraft were built.

This decision to outsource the production was undoubtedly taken so that Hawker Aircraft could give priority to the production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter.
Operational service
Starting in February 1937, the Hector began equipping the seven RAF army co-operation squadrons that would use it, but it in turn began to be replaced by Westland Lysanders beginning in July 1938. The Hectors were transferred to Auxiliary Air Force squadrons. 613 Squadron was converting to Lysanders at RAF Hawkinge and flew in support of the Allied garrison in the Siege of Calais.[3] On 26 May, along with its Lysanders, six Hectors dive bombed German positions around Calais and on the following day, tried to drop supplies to the troops, unaware that they had already surrendered; two Hectors were lost.Hectors were used by the RAF from 1940 as target-tugs, and for towing General Aircraft Hotspur training gliders.

The Irish Air Corps received 13 examples after the Dunkirk Evacuation in 1941–42 and in general were in poor condition. They were sold by the British War Office to Ireland upon requests for aircraft as the Irish military found themselves wholly unprepared for modern warfare but still relied almost completely on Britain for military supplies. The defence of Ireland was in the British interest but while they were fighting the Battle of Britain, they could not afford to sell the Irish Government anything better than the Hector. The type was deeply unpopular with ground crews due to the complicated and unreliable Dagger engine, whose tightly packed high revving 24 cylinders made access difficult.








General characteristics
Crew: Two
Length: 29 ft 9+3⁄4 in (9.09 m)
Upper wingspan: 36 ft 11+1⁄2 in (11.26 m)
Lower wingspan: 31 ft 4 in (9.55 m)
Height: 10 ft 5 in (3.18 m)
Wing area: 346 sq ft (32.1 m2)
Empty weight: 3,389 lb (1,537 kg)
Gross weight: 4,910 lb (2,227 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Napier Dagger III 24-cylinder air-cooled H-block engine, 805 hp (600 kW)
Propellers: 2-bladed fixed pitch wooden propeller
Performance
Maximum speed: 187 mph (301 km/h, 162 kn) at 6,600 ft (2,000 m)
Stall speed: 50 mph (80 km/h, 44 kn)
Range: 300 mi (480 km, 261 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,000 ft (7,300 m)
Time to altitude: 5 minutes 40 seconds to 10,000 ft (3,000 m)
Armament
Guns:
1 × forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun Mk.V
1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun in the rear cockpit on a Hawker mount
Bombs: Mountings for a camera, flares, and 2 × 112 lb (51 kg) bombs (or containers)
(Text from Wikki)