Hawker Hurricane Mk. I of I.R. Gleed, 87 Sqn.

Night vision.

Mark 12? Please explain…

Cheers, Azi.

The exhausts on a Merlin engine at ‘full chat’ will glow to near Cherry Red. Although not visible in daylight, this becomes a serious problem to a night-fighter pilot who looses his vision depth as the iris of his eyes adjusts to the brightness from the exhaust. The supposition is that the six port exhaust stacks run cooler or are better visually shielded that the three port exhaust system.

Mark

Figaro

I understand that at the time the aircraft was in its all-black scheme when the unit converted to nightfighters, it was no longer flown by Ian Gleed. Can anyone confirm this?

Gleed was Squadron Commander of 87 Sqd., flying Night Fighter missions in his Hurricane P2798 ‘Figaro’ through the winter of 1940/41 up until August 1941. He departed 87 Sqd. in November 1941.

Mark

I understand that at the time the aircraft was in its all-black scheme when the unit converted to nightfighters, it was no longer flown by Ian Gleed. Can anyone confirm this?

Mark 12? Please explain…

Cheers, Azi.

I think Mark 12 is right. I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that it was a measure taken to cut down the glare while night flying. Both for the pilot flying the aircraft and for anyone in the air who might be trying to intercept the Hurricane.

Regards,

kev35

@all: Thank you very much for your help! This was exactly what I needed to see!!
Would still be interesting to know why they did that…

Azi.

I would imagine the modelers got their info from the following two photos from the old Arco-Aircam “Hawker Hurricane Mk.I/IV” by Chris Shores and Richard Ward.

Note the 6 ejector exhausts in both photos

Dan

I wonder if…

.. Hasegawa know more than we do.

There are two photos of P2798 LK-A, camouflaged brown/green and three port exhaust, in Norman Franks biography of Gleed. Latterly 87 Sqd. was assigned to night fighter duties with the Hurricanes and there is a shot of LK-B that appears to be Black/Night overall.

It may be that the six port exhaust was an ‘in squadron mod.’ to cut down the glare from the exhaust at night. I believe the fish tail flared six ports are more flush to the fuselage than the three port.

Mark

As its a Mk 1 it should only have 3, and NOT the six. As for the reason Hasegawa do this I don’t honestly know so sorry I could not be of any further assistance.

Regards
Danni