The rapidly changing world of the 1930s forced the British government to take stock of its defences in relation to the growing military capability of Germany. In 1933 Winston Churchill warned Parliament of Germany's latest path and by 1935 expansion programmes for the British armed forces had been agreed. The Hind light bomber was one of the types produced for quick delivery to the RAF, based on the Hart and therefore needing little new development, although a number of improvements were introduced as the result of long experience with the Hart.

The first prototype was in fact a modified Hart and first flew on 12 September 1934 at Brooklands. Production covered no less than 528 aircraft, although with the delivery of modern monoplane bombers a number of the final Hinds on the production lines for the RAF were completed as dual-control trainers, a new role which many were eventually to fulfil. Records show that from even the first batch of 20 Hinds, General Aircraft was later to convert nine into trainers. Nine foreign users of the Hind (new and ex-RAF aircraft) included Latvia, New Zealand, Persia and South Africa.

3-View

A three-view drawing (678 x 546)