The Hawker P.V.4 is an aircraft from the 1930s.

In 1931, the British Air Ministry issued a specification for a "Standard General Purpose" aircraft. The duties was to include Liaison, Bombing (both day & night), dive bombing, torpedo carrying and reconnaissance, as individually aircraft of the Hawker Hart series could perform these duties, Hawkers decided to base their entry on the Hart. The P V 4 was designed & built as a result. Although the P V 4 had a bomb load of 570 lb, which was the same as the Hart, the increased strength allowed it to dive with this load. Like the Hart, it had a crew of two. The Air Ministry was formerly a department of the United Kingdom Government, established in 1918 with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the (then newly formed) Royal Air Force. ... A modern torpedo, historically called a locomotive torpedo, is a self-propelled projectile that (after being launched above or below the water surface) operates underwater and is designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. ... The Hawker Hart was a two-seater biplane light-bomber of the Royal Air Force (RAF), which had a prominent role during the RAFs inter-war period. ...

Service

The P V 4 was first flown from the Brooklands airfield on 6 December 1934, but as the dive bombing duty had been dropped from the specification, the aircraft had little extra to offer. The Bristol Pegasus III engine was initially used, but this was changed to the Pegasus X in 1935. Only one aircraft was built. This was eventually used for spinning tests, and then sent to Bristol where several other engines were installed. Brooklands was a motor racing circuit built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. ... Bristol (IPA: ) is a city, unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, 115 miles (185 km) west of London and located at With a population of 400,000, and metropolitan area of 550,000, it is Englands sixth, and the United Kingdoms ninth, most populous city...

Armament

• One forward firing Vickers machine gun was installed in the nose.
• A Lewis Gun on a mount in the rear cockpit was operated by the observer.
• Bomb loads of up to 570 lb could be carried.

The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled . ... The Lewis Gun was a pre-WWI era American design of machine gun most widely used by the British Empire and Imperial armies that continued to see service all the way through to WWII, it first saw combat with the Belgian Army in WWI. It is visually distinctive because of...

Specification (with the Pegasus X engine)

• Span - 40' 0" [12.19 m]
• Length - 29' 10" [9.09 m]
• Height - 11' 10" [3.61 m]
• Empty Wt - 3728 lb [1691 kg]
• Loaded Wt - 6650 lb [3016 kg]
• Max Speed - 183 mph at 6650' [ 294.5 km/h at 2027 m]
• Ceiling - 23700' [7224 m]

Reference

• "Hawker Aircraft since 1920" by Francis K Mason - pub Putnam