Hawker Hart Scale Version

Hi All,

I am new here, but wanted to seek advice about a dream project. For years I have wanted to build an airplane and have admired the Hawker Hart, a British interwar two seat biplane. It has a 37 foot wingspan and an early v-12 Rolls Royce. Not a great homebuilding project at full scale, but a 2/3 scale version would give it about a 25 foot wing span and 20 foot length, making it similar to the Hatz, Starduster Too, and other two place homebuilt biplanes. My dream is to build such a scale version, as faithful to the original as reasonable but with some modifications for homebuilding, such as wooden wings, and of course a much smaller engine. By way of comparison, Fisher Flying Products has an 80% scale Tiger Moth and there are plans for a scale Hawker Fury, which was a single seat successor to the Hart.

Is this feasible? How to proceed? I have the book by Alex Crawford, which has some drawings. The only flyable version is at Shuttleworth in the UK. I think they might have larger scale, more detailed drawings. I don't know CAD and also don't know aircraft design. Is it possible to commission an aeronautical engineer to create a scale set of plans? In the boat world people commission designs all the time but I don't hear of this in the airplane world. If I did the design myself, as a non-credentialed person, would I have to get it approved by the FAA? Would it be insanely risky for me to even try such a thing, even following, say the Startduster design for materials and sizes of fittings? Any suggestions welcome.

Andy Kydd

There's the "Junkers" version of the Fly Baby, which modifies the stock monoplane single-seater into a replica of the Junkers CL1 trench-strafer from WWI. Among other things, it puts a dummy gunner behind the stock pilot seat.

About a year or two back, someone suggested doing the same modification to the Fly baby biplane. We thought it might make a decent scale version of the Hawker Demon, the fighter variant of the Hart.
Attachment 9045
The downside is the airplane is still a single-seater.

Ron Wanttaja

Yes, it's possible to hire an engineer to design it.

It will be expensive.

If you design it yourself, and many people have, the FAA won't care, all they look for is properly completed paperwork and good workmanship (e.g. properly saftied bolts, etc.).

Copying and modifying a similar design is a common approach.

Thanks! I love the Fly Baby design, monoplane as well as biplane.

The Isaacs Fury would be a starting point.

Yes, if there were an Isaacs Hart, I would be building it!

Thanks for your reply.

Redesigning while 'remaining faithful' to the original will be a monumental task.
And be aware of the handling issues that crop up when scaling down. Look back at the little replica WW2 fighters from the '80s & '90s, where stall speeds & pitch sensitivity were, shall we say, attention getting.

Andy: Might pop over to Theaerdrome.com and the Replica Aircraft forum. Some of the guys there might know if one has ever been done, or if someone has done any work on designing one.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Andy, I ran across some info in a email that might interest you. I have an acquaintance that has been working off and on, on the drawings for a Hart replica. Don't know the size, or current status, but can ask if you are interested. Drop me an email.

Could swear I responded to this but don't see my response in the thread. Anyway, sorry for the delay, but definitely interested. My email is ahhkydd@gmail.com.

Will drop him a note this afternoon, Andy. Depending on what's going on in his world, it may be as much as a month before I hear back from him. I've been doing some research for him off and on over the last couple of years for a project he's working on and just sent him a note last week.

Andy: I've heard back from my friend. He's thinking hard about doing a Hart. Will let him know that you are quite interested.

Awesome, thanks!