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History:    The Hawker Demon represented the fighter variant of Hawker’s very successful and popular Hart family.  When introduced, the Hart was so fast that contemporary RAF fighters could not intercept it and so, Hawker were asked to produce a fighter along similar lines.  The resulting aircraft was the Demon.  While some were equipped with turrets for the rear facing armament, the majority had a single gun on a flexible rear mount, with forward armament of two .303 machine guns fitted, one either side of the nose.  

The Hawker Demon was a fighter variant of the Hart light bomber. It was developed as when the Hart entered service, it was virtually uninterceptable by the RAF's fighters, which was demonstrated in air defence exercises where they were sometimes instructed to restrict their height and speed in order to give the RAF's Siskins and Bulldogs a chance.[26] While the Hawker Fury offered better performance, it was expensive and was only available in small numbers, so when a fighter version of the Hart was suggested, the Air Ministry selected the type as an interim fighter until higher performance dedicated fighters could be bought in larger numbers.[27] The new fighter variant added a second Vickers machine gun, while the coaming of the rear cockpit was angled to give a better field of fire, and a supercharged Kestrel IS engine was fitted. Evaluation of an initial batch of six aircraft, known as Hart Fighters by one flight of 23 Squadron during 1931 was successful, and larger orders followed for the fighter Hart, now known as the Hawker Demon.[28] Over 200 Hawker Demons were built for the RAF. The Demon were powered by varying types of the Kestrel engine. It had an armament of a single rear .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Gun with two .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns in the nose. Large numbers of the type were fitted with a hydraulically powered turret in the rear, which had been tested on the Hawker Hart. The Demon was also sold to the Royal Australian Air Force. It saw only brief second line operations during the Second World War.

Over 200 were produced for the RAF, serving until just after the outbreak of the Second World War.  41 Squadron was formed in 1916 and is today one of the oldest squadrons serving with the RAF.  As well as being based at Northolt, the squadron used its Demons on air policing duties in the Middle East.  Today, the squadron operates Tornado GR4s as an operational evaluation unit.v

Info:    Hawker Demon, K2905, 41 Sqn, C Flight, RAF Northolt, Autumn 1934

Media:      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yzpJDeT1zk