Hawker Aircraft in the context of List of aircraft manufacturers

The air war during Operation Overlord, alongside the Battle of Britain, the carrier battles in the Pacific and the strategic air war against the German Reich, was one of the most significant air battles of the Second World War. It took place between April and August 1944 in the course of the Allied landings in northern France (→ Operation Overlord).

The Allied landing in Normandy was also made possible by the air superiority of the Allied forces. Before June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, the Allied air forces prepared for the invasion. They bombed German supply lines, artillery batteries and supported the French Resistance from the air with ammunition and equipment.

The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe in the campaign, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War.

The Hurricane originated from discussions between RAF officials and aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm about a proposed monoplane derivative of the Hawker Fury biplane in the early 1930s. Despite an institutional preference for biplanes and lack of interest by the Air Ministry, Hawker refined its monoplane proposal, incorporating several innovations which became critical to wartime fighter aircraft, including retractable landing gear and the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry ordered Hawker's Interceptor Monoplane in late 1934, and the prototype Hurricane K5083 performed its maiden flight on 6 November 1935.

The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engine and the swept wing, and was the first jet-powered aircraft produced by Hawker to be procured by the RAF. On 7 September 1953, the modified first prototype broke the world air speed record for aircraft, achieving a speed of 727.63 mph (1,171.01 km/h; 632.29 kn).

The single-seat Hunter was introduced to service in 1954 as a manoeuvrable day interceptor aircraft, quickly succeeding first-generation jet fighters in RAF service such as the Gloster Meteor and the de Havilland Venom. The all-weather/night fighter role was filled by the Gloster Javelin. Successively improved variants of the type were produced, adopting increasingly more capable engine models and expanding its fuel capacity among other modifications being implemented. Hunters were also used by two RAF display teams: the Black Arrows, who on one occasion looped a record-breaking 22 Hunters in formation, and later the Blue Diamonds, who flew 16 aircraft. The Hunter was also widely exported, serving with a total of 21 overseas air forces.

The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy. Developed during the Second World War, the Sea Fury entered service two years after the war ended. It proved to be a popular aircraft with overseas militaries and was used during the Korean War in the early 1950s, and by the Cuban air force during the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion.

The development of the Sea Fury began in 1943 in response to a wartime requirement of the Royal Air Force (RAF), with the aircraft first named Fury. As the Second World War drew to a close, the RAF cancelled its order for the aircraft. The Royal Navy saw the type as a suitable carrier aircraft to replace a range of obsolescent and stop-gap aircraft being operated by the Fleet Air Arm. Development of the Sea Fury proceeded, and the type entered operational service in 1947.