| Tomtit | |
|---|---|
 Shuttleworth's Tomtit G-AFTA at Old Warden | |
| General information | |
| Type | Trainer |
| Manufacturer | Hawker Aircraft |
| Number built | 36 |
| History | |
| First flight | November 1928 |
The Hawker Tomtit is a British training biplane from the late 1920s.
| Tomtit | |
|---|---|
| Shuttleworth's Tomtit G-AFTA at Old Warden | |
| General information | |
| Type | Trainer |
| Manufacturer | Hawker Aircraft |
| Number built | 36 |
| History | |
| First flight | November 1928 |
The Hawker Tomtit is a British training biplane from the late 1920s.
The Royal Air Force in 1927 required a replacement for their current elementary trainers, the elderly Avro 504Ns. They specified that the power plant should be an Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose engine, a radial five-cylinder type, and the design should "have regards to the elimination of the Woodworking Fitter trades." In other words: the airframe, though not its covering had to be metal. This led Sydney Camm, then chief designer at Hawker to design the Tomtit, a single bay biplane whose frame was of steel and duralumin tubes. The spars were made of tubular dumbbell sections, the whole aircraft fabric covered. Automatic slats of the Handley Page type were fitted to the leading edges of the upper wing. It had the standard fixed main wheel and tail-skid undercarriage of its day. The engine was uncowled.
Instructor and trainee sat in open tandem cockpits. The latter, at the rear, was provided with the then-new blind flying panel and a cockpit hood was fitted so blind flying instruction was possible. The RAF Tomtits had 150 hp (112 kW) Mongoose IIIC motors. The prototype (J9772) was first flown by George Bulman from Brooklands in November 1928.
Hawker also produced five civil registered Tomtits. [1] The first two of these started with a Mongoose IIIA engine and the third with an upright in-line 115 hp (86 kW) A.D.C. Cirrus Major. It was thought that this latter, lower power engine choice might appeal more to public sporting owners. Three of these aircraft were later owned by Wolseley, who fitted them with their cowled A.R. 7 and A.R.9 radial motors.
Between 1928 and 1931, 24 aircraft were delivered to the RAF for evaluation. [2] After the first batch of ten, two more batches of six and eight aircraft respectively were ordered. The competition included the eventual winner, the Avro Tutor. Military Tomtits were sold elsewhere, two to Canada and four to New Zealand. [3] [4] Despite its failure to win the RAF contract, it is probable that more Tomtits could have been sold as it was very well received by their pilots but Hawker were very busy producing the Hawker Hart and its many variants and did not have the capacity to manufacture other aircraft. The Cirrus-powered machine had turned out to be rather underpowered and lacking the control precision of the standard aircraft.
In 1935 some nine ex-RAF aircraft joined the original five on the civil register. [5] [6] They were used by individuals and clubs as sports and training machines. On 4 February 1941, three surplus Tomtits were acquired from Leicester Aero Club by Alex Henshaw, chief test pilot at the Vickers-Armstrongs Castle Bromwich aircraft factory for use as personal transport until mid-1942. G-AFIB was destroyed in a night take-off accident during the war and G-AFVV was destroyed at some point soon after the war. G-AFTA survived the war, was sold by Henshaw in 1946 but then acquired and restored by the Hawker company in 1949. This was donated to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden in 1960 and is still airworthy there today.
Canada 
New Zealand 
United Kingdom 
One Tomtit still flies, the ex-RAF K1786G-AFTA. This, the last RAF machine to be completed in January 1931, initially served with No. 3 Flying Training School. It joined the UK civil register in April 1939. During the war, it was flown by Alex Henshaw and gained a Spitfire windscreen and faired headrest. After purchase and restoration by Hawker in 1949, it became the mount of company test pilot Neville Duke and was repainted dark blue and gold. In 1960, it was handed over to the Shuttleworth Collection, who returned it to its original RAF colours in 1967.
Data from [7]
General characteristics
Performance
The Avro 504 is a single-engine biplane bomber made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during World War I totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in any military capacity during the First World War. More than 10,000 were built from 1913 until production ended in 1932.
The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both landplane and seaplane variants. First flying on 14 September 1917, examples were still in use during the Second World War.
The Cierva C.30 is an autogyro designed by Juan de la Cierva and built under licence from the Cierva Autogiro Company by A V Roe & Co Ltd (Avro), Lioré-et-Olivier and Focke-Wulf.
The Hawker Woodcock was a British single-seat fighter built by the Hawker Engineering Company as the first fighter to be produced by Hawker Engineering. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a night fighter in the 1920s.
The Vickers Varsity is a retired British twin-engined crew trainer operated by the Royal Air Force from 1951 to 1976.
The Fairey Gordon was a British light bomber and utility aircraft of the 1930s.
The Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose is a British five-cylinder radial aero engine produced by Armstrong Siddeley. Developed in the mid-1920s it was used in the Hawker Tomtit trainer and Parnall Peto seaplane amongst others. With a displacement of 540 cubic inches (9 litres) the Mongoose had a maximum power output of 155 horsepower (115 kilowatts).
The de Havilland DH.60 Moth is a 1920s British two-seat touring and training aircraft that was developed into a series of aircraft by the de Havilland Aircraft Company.
The Avro Type 621 Tutor is a two-seat British radial-engined biplane from the interwar period. It was a simple but rugged basic trainer that was used by the Royal Air Force as well as many other air arms worldwide.
The Hawker Horsley was a British single-engined biplane bomber of the 1920s. It was the last all-wooden aircraft built by Hawker Aircraft, and served as a medium day bomber and torpedo bomber with Britain's Royal Air Force between 1926 and 1935, as well as the navies of Greece and Denmark.
The de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird is a British single-seat, single-engine, low-wing monoplane light aircraft first flown in the 1920s.
The Armstrong Whitworth Atlas was a British single-engine biplane designed and built by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. It served as an army co-operation aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the first purpose-designed aircraft of the army co-operation type to serve with the RAF.
The Avro Club Cadet was a 1930s single-engined British biplane trainer aircraft, designed and built by Avro as a development of the earlier Cadet. It was planned for private and club use and, unlike the Cadet, was fitted with folding wings.
The Blackburn L.1 Bluebird was a British single-engine biplane light trainer/tourer with side-by-side seating, built in small numbers by Blackburn Aircraft in the 1920s.
The Blackburn B-2 was a biplane side-by-side trainer aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft.
The B.A Swallow was a British light aircraft of the 1930s. It was a license-built version by the British Klemm Aeroplane Company of the German Klemm L.25. A total of 135 were built.
The de Havilland DH.51 is a 1920s British three-seat touring biplane built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware.
The Saro Cloud was a British passenger amphibian flying boat designed and built by Saunders-Roe as the A.19. It was later produced as the A.29 for the Royal Air Force for pilot and navigator training.
The Westland Widgeon was a British light aircraft of the 1920s. A single-engined parasol monoplane, the Widgeon was built in small numbers before Westland abandoned production in 1929.
The Handley Page HP.32 Hamlet was a British six-passenger monoplane transport designed and built by Handley Page. Only one was built to order of the Air Ministry, first flown with three-engines, later changed to two then back to three engines.
