De Havilland Hornet

[Inverted81]

Hi all, info quest AGAIN!!
http://www.georgiacombat.com/dh103-i.jpg
One of the less known from the dehavilland factory... any info?? where did they fly from? did any see any combat? what was their role??? Thanks
Chris:}

[Aerohack]

Get hold of a copy of Lewis Cooper's 'The Hornet File' (ISBN 0 85130 202 5). It is the definitive work on Hornets/Sea Hornets and the Squadrons which operated them. Combat? RAF Hornets saw plenty of action during the Malayan campaign. Many were scrapped in the Far East. Such a shame that not a single complete example of a Hornet or Sea Hornet still exists.

[OldBonaMate]

Go to Google and type in the appropriate key word. I did it recently and got much good info.

Sorry, can't remember the specific websites that Google pointed me at.

[gyp]

I saw a Hornet steal the show at an air display back in the 50s/60s. It stopped both engines at, we were told, 8000 ft. A dive to a very low level over the airfield gave it enough speed to complete a wide loop, followed by a roll before unfeathering and re-starting the engines.

Even without the noise of the engines, its passage was not exactly silent.

Did this pre-date Bob Hoover?

[astir 8]

Just from the photos it must have been one of the best looking aircraft ever built.

Pity there's not even one left

[Jet Dragon]

Gyp - I remember my (late) dad recounting the very same story to me years ago - about the Hornet that feathered both props during his display.

That particular display was at Hawarden where a fair few Hornets were built.

Cheers

JD

[pigboat]

A Hornet operated briefly in Canada with a civil registration, back in the late fifties or early sixties. I seem to recall the company used it on high altitude photographic survey. Must go look it up.

[Aerohack]

That unique civilian Hornet was a Sea Hornet which was shipped to Canada in 1948 for winterisation trials and when they were completed it was sold to Spartan Air Services for photo survey work. Spartan, who operated a fleet of photo Mosquitos, later sold it to Field Aircraft Services, but it didn't last long. After an engine fire-induced forced landing in July 1952 it was scrapped due to lack of spares. It was 806 NAS — the official Fleet Air Arm display team at the time — which developed the single-engine and both-feathered aerobatic routines with their Sea Hornet F.20s. Some reports of their visit to the USA in the summer of 1948 say that they performed formation set pieces with feathered props at New York's Idlewild Airport. What a sight that must have been!

[reynoldsno1]

Didn't Westland produce a single seat twin-engine fighter in the early 40's? I think it was called the Whirlwind... ISTR making an Airfix kit of it a looooong time ago.

[Random UAS Stude]

Reynolds...

Westland did produce the Whirlwind (not to be confused with the later helicopter), and it entered service an 1940. Should have been a good plane, but it had the fabled RR Peregrine's (like the Manchester). Unfortunately, Messr's Supermarine and Hawker needed all the RR Merlins they could get (as everyone did in those days), and they weren't fitted to the Whirlwind. Have a look at the link below...

http://kougar2k3.users.btopenworld.com/whirlwind.htm

cheers

[Kolibear]

Ahhh....... De Havilland Hornet. This is the aircraft that most afficionados would like to rebuild if they had unlimited time, effort and money. And a couple of opposite rotating Merlins of course.

Now where did I leave that winning lottery ticket???

[VnV2178B]

Reynolds...

Several companies tried to do a twin-engine fighter, Westlands also made the Welkin, which did have Merlins, but was targetted at high altitude threats, Vickers did another one and Glosters also had a Perigrine engine prototype at about the same time as the Whirlwind. None had the charisma of the DeHavilland though.

VnV...

Oh, the Manchester had Vultures, two Perigrines bolted together to make a spectacularly unsuccessful engine. We had some thread about this a while ago.

(editted after noticing an attack of the Drape's)

[Random UAS Stude]

VnV

Thanks, I stand corrected, the Manchester did have vulture's

Silly schoolboy error...



:O

[seafuryfan]

There's something about this aircraft with its canopy perched on the nose, and that diminutive airframe wrapped around those late model Merlins....

It's one of the favourites on enthusiasts 'wish list' to resurrect extinct types.

I'll start a new thread to see if any old timers have got memories to share.

[seafuryfan]

Following on from the Hornet thread, do any of our more senior contributers have any meomories of operating on this aircraft (air or ground crew) which they would like to share with us?