72185 HAWKER AUSTRALIAN DEMON WAR SERVICE

The Hawker Demon was a British mixed biplane fighter with a fixed undercarriage from the interwar period and World War II. The drive was provided by a single engine Rolls-Royce Kestrel IB with a power of 525 HP .. The prototype flight took place in February 1933. The armament was 2 7.7 mm Vickers machine guns and 1 7.7 mm Lewis machine gun. The Hawker Demon was created as a development of another Hawker Aircraft Ltd. aircraft, the Hart machine. Compared to its predecessor, the Hawker Demon differed in reinforced rifle armament, reinforced fuselage structure - especially in the tail section, clearly limited bombardment, and a modified rear gunner position. The Hawker and Bolton Paul Aircraft plants took care of serial production for the RAF. During it, one basic development version was created, designated as Hawker Demon Mk. I. However, the machine also found its way to the Australian Air Force, where the Demon I version powered by a 600 HP engine and Demon II, which acted as a training aircraft, were created. Hawker Demon planes began to be withdrawn from the line in the late 1930s in favor of Gloster Gauntlet and Gloster Gladiator fighters.