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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 (the successor to Sopwith Aviation). It was used by the RAF as a night fighter in the 1920s. ==Design and development== The Hawker Woodcock was designed as a night fighter in 1922 to meet specification 25/22.〔 The chief designer was Captain Thomson, and the prototype serial number ''J6987'') was first flown with a 358 hp (267 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar II engine in March 1923 with F. P. Raynham at the controls. It featured a two-bay wing with the inner struts at about ⅓ span. The prototype was rejected because of lack of manoeuvrability as well as suffering from a serious wing flutter and ineffective rudder control. Following the first flight W. G. Carter took over as chief designer and changed the design, reducing the wingspan by 2 ft (0.61 m) and making it a single-bay structure. The powerplant was changed to a 380 hp (283 kW) Bristol Jupiter IV engine. The modified design was designated the ''Woodcock Mk II'' and first flew in July 1923. A number of accidents occurred and the design was progressively strengthened until the structural weakness had been cured. The Woodcock was armed with two .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns, synchronised to fire through the propeller disk. The guns were mounted externally on each side of the fuselage, just below the edge of the cockpit. The first order for the Royal Air Force was for 10 Woodcock IIs, with the first six being completed without any night flying equipment.〔 The service eventually ordered a total of 62 aircraft. One of the first batch of aircraft was given a civil registration to allow it to be demonstrated in Scandinavia.〔〔 On return to the United Kingdom the demonstrator was entered into the 1925 King's Cup Air Race but it crashed during the race in bad weather near Luton.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hawker Woodcock」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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