Hawker Woodcock
The Hawker Woodcock was a British single-seat biplane night fighter of the 1920s, the first fighter built by the Hawker Engineering Company and the first aircraft bearing the Hawker name to serve with the RAF. Designed to Specification 25/22, the Jaguar-powered prototype failed its trials; George Carter's redesign, the Jupiter-powered Woodcock II, entered service in 1925 with Nos. 3 and 17 Squadrons. Production was small and the career short: the type was grounded in 1928. An improved version built for Denmark, the Danecock and the licence-built Dankok, served into the mid-1930s, and one Dankok is reported preserved in Denmark.
Why It Mattered
The Hawker Woodcock was the first fighter produced by the Hawker Engineering Company, Sopwith Aviation's successor, and the first type to carry the Hawker name into RAF service. It was designed from the outset as a night fighter, to Air Ministry Specification 25/22, which asked for a good rate of climb and good handling. The first prototype failed its trials so comprehensively that its designer resigned, and the rescue of the design put George Carter in charge of Hawker's drawing office. Adapted for Denmark as the Danecock, the design went on to serve that country's army and naval air services into the mid-1930s.
Design Notes
Captain Bertram Thomson's Woodcock was a two-bay biplane of wooden frame and fabric covering, powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar radial engine. Official trials in 1923 found its rudder almost completely useless, spin recovery very difficult and the wings subject to flutter at high speed. Carter replaced the Jaguar with a 380 hp Bristol Jupiter IV and designed a new single-bay wing, shorter in span but greater in chord, producing the Woodcock II. The production aircraft carried two fixed, forward-firing Vickers guns, mounted externally on the fuselage sides and synchronised to fire through the propeller arc.
Operational History
Production was small: the first contract covered only ten aircraft, and 61 Woodcock IIs were built for the RAF in all. The type entered service in 1925, replacing the Sopwith Snipe; No. 3 Squadron received the first aircraft that May, and No. 17 Squadron, the only other operational unit, followed in March 1926. Early service brought accidents, the aircraft being prone to wing-spar failures and collapsing undercarriages, though the weaknesses were cured by the end of 1925. Once sorted, the Woodcock proved popular with its pilots, and in June 1927 Charles Lindbergh borrowed a No. 17 Squadron aircraft to fly back to Paris from London shortly after his transatlantic flight. In January 1928 No. 17 Squadron converted to the Gloster Gamecock. Later that year the type was officially grounded after a fatal accident that killed Flight Lieutenant L. H. Browning, and No. 3 Squadron also moved on to the Gamecock. Denmark had ordered three aircraft of an improved version, the Danecock, in 1925; the first flew that December and all three were delivered in February 1926. Denmark then built twelve more under licence at the Royal Naval Dockyard in 1927, named the Dankok. A Hawker-built Danecock also set a Scandinavian altitude record, reaching 28,208 ft (8,598 m).
Afterlife
The Woodcock's RAF career ended with the 1928 grounding, although some aircraft were still flying in 1936. A third prototype, an all-metal aircraft built as a private venture, was renamed the Hawker Heron in 1925. The Danish aircraft served on until the mid-1930s, when Hawker Nimrods replaced them. One aircraft of the family is reported to survive: a Danish-built Dankok, held by the Danish Aircraft Museum. That museum, Danmarks Flymuseum, stands at Stauning Airport in Denmark and hosts the Royal Danish Air Force collection.