EVERYONE thought that Hawker chief designer Sydney Camm had surpassed himself with the Fury single-seat fighter. This beautiful craft caught the imagination of public and pilots alike. But by 1933, the biplane had had its day. There were some die-hards at the Air Ministry who thought that the inevitable could be held off. Thankfully, there were other minds ready to move on. Sydney was one of these. So was Major John Buchanan at the Directorate of Technical Development. In August 1933 the pair got together and Sydney and his team started to draw up a shapely monoplane version of the Fury. Powerplant was to be the Rolls-Royce Goshawk, there would be four machine-guns, and a fixed and spatted undercarriage finished off a design that was very pleasing to the eye. By early 1934, the Goshawk was out of favour, so the new PV. 12 from Rolls-Royce was substituted, and a retractable undercarriage was introduced. (The PV. 12 entered production as the Merlin.)
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