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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1942.PDF
-346 JN THE AIR—XX FLIGHT SEPTEMBER 26TH, 194O The Hurricane First of the Modern Fighters : Safe and Solid Qualities : Some Memories of the Different Versions IT would be plessant to be able to think that I hadflown the Hawker Hurricane right through its life, fromthe original fixed-pitch fabric-winged version to its final heavily loaded maid-of all-work form. Unfortunately it wouldn't be true. By the time I had got round to the point of being even comparatively safe in such over- powered -military devices, the war had started and the old fixed-pitch type had already given way to a two-pitch version—though Etill with fabric-covered wings. That was late in 1939, and my last experience of the type—except for occasional flights in odd aiid sometimes very ancient Hurricanes which had somehow until then remained hidden in hangars—was in 1943 with the II C, . carrying four cannons and long-range g j-ettison tanks. y But with the possible exception of the multitude of Spitfire variants, I think I came to know the Hurricane and to like it as well as any other wartime aircraft It always seemed to be such a good, solid sensible affair, which took everything—whether heavy handling by pilots or overloading by designers who had been asked to provide just that little bit more—without a murmur. Furthermore, it was the Hurricane which really did most of the work in the Battle of Britain days. From the point of view of the not too skilled or experi- enced pilot, the Hurricane had a number of outstandingly good qualities. In the first place, one could see out of it well, both while in the air and on thj ground, while the very considerable flap area not only provided plenty of drag to simplify the approach, but also gave the aircraft a gliding attitude which permitted the pilot to see straight ahead over the nose almost to the moment of touch-down. Because of the healthy flap area it was much less sensi- tive to an excessive approach speed than the Spitfire, and the comparatively wide-track undercarriage permitted rather greater liberties, both while landing and while taxy- ing on rough or soft surfaces. By contrast, the stalling characteristics were undoubtedly a little less forgiving than those of the Spitfire ; when really stalled the Hurricane quite firmly dropped a wing. Nevertheless, it could pos- sibly stand rather more in the way of strike damage and lost panels in the wing without showing any very marked deterioration in its flying qualities. During cannon test- ing operations we were repeatedly either losing gun-panels complete or suffering unfastened buttons which caused the corners of these panels to lift up when diving—yet arrival difficulties were seldom experienced, and only when a really vast area of gun panel chose to disappear in the air was the wing concerned likely to stall early. The earlier Hurricanes had, in addition to the gated five- position selector lever for the flaps and undercarriage, a form of the then-common hydraulic power control. This could be some- thing of a nuisance since, after select- ing either flaps or undercarriage, it was necessary to hold this lever down with one's right hand while organizing a take-off or approach. The throttle could not, consequently, be moved at the same time, and "stick" flying with one's left hand is, in any case, never a very accurate affair. ; Incidentally, many of the first two-pitch Hurricanes had, for the airscrew control, a normal c.s. lever instead of the customary plunger affair. During my first flight, and in- my ignorance of the fact that it was a two-position air- screw, I accordingly endeavoured to set the revolutions at some particular cruising figure, and was annoyed when this continually varied one way or the other. The fact that the revolutions could be made to stay constant even for brief periods in an intermediate setting of a two-pitch airscrew was an interesting phenomenon, and showed how the very first '' bracket'' type of constant-speed conver- sion might have been born. On test work with the Hurricane lateral trimming wasequalized in the usual way by doping lengths of cord on the trailing upper-edge of one aileron. After a fewscore of hours, and considerable experience with different shades of trimming error, we became quite expert at guess-ing the length of the cord required. One simply came The eight-gun Hurricane of the 1940-1941 era; earlier versions of the type had fabric-covered wings and, in a few cases,two-pitch airscrews immediately following the fixed-pitch initial era. <\ _
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