An unusual Hurricane

Rather than making the slip wings out of wood they could have used up all the redundant fabric wings, just needed a bit of tube to make a centre section and Bob’s your Uncle!!!!!!

Richard

In Top Gun 1940 Maverick pulls the handle and the wing takes out the pursuing Hun.

You heard it here first.

Moggy

Apparently a parachute was mooted…….

I can picture that wing fluttering like a dropped, crisp bill, until it got smashed to bits that is 😉

I wonder if they had persisted with the project would they perhaps have fitted an ‘air tail’ or drogue chute to stabilise the jettisoned wing in its descent?

Thanks Edgar. And Aeronut.

Anyone seriously looking into this concept needs to read ‘Defence against the Night Bomber’ by Noel Pemberton Billing who describes his concept of the slip wing fighter which was tested on the Hurricane and Bi Mono. He also describes the natural progression to the concept, the Slip Wing Bomber, niether idea was truely novel as they were just expansions of the Mayo composite idea used for seaplane mail carriers. The book also mentions the tow fighter which was also tested – extending the range of a fighter by towing it as a glider and then starting the engine in flight. The clearing the prop with the bridle was a problem as was keeping the engine oil warm but that was no problem to NPB who in a book published in 1941 describes, but doesn’t name, an aircarft being built that would solve those problems. The aircraft he describes is the Vampire.

Is the reference you are using publicly available?

File no. AVIA 15/1629 in the National Archives, Kew.

Beermat , The story apparently ( Jarrett) was that approval was given for “Hurricane AG 321 now at RAE” to be supplied. This was a Canadian built Hurricane 1, converted to Mark IIB standards in U.K. (inc. metal wings) then shipped to Russia on Aug 19 1942 .
What Hills got was Hurricane 1 L1884 ,shipped to Canada for the RCAF in March 1939 and given the serial “321” . This had come back to the U.K., for service with No1 Sqn RCAF and was SOC from the RCAF on May 26 1940. Not surprisingly the situation was confused, “321” being referred to as “AG321” and it might well have been that this was the aircraft MAP intended Hills to have.
I think it has to be noted that this project was driven primarily by Hills with seemingly only half-hearted support from RAE and MAP beyond initial evaluation.
Even less well known is the “Sunflower” Hurricane project , which had a battery of upwards firing rockets installed in the fuselage aft of the cockpit for attacking bomber formations. An idea later of course resurrected by the Germans.

Thanks NEEMA. Really interesting that.. the early fabric wing didn’t have drag struts per se, transverse loads being ably taken up by the Warren girder spar arrangement. However, where I said that the lugs were identical – that wasn’t strictly true of the wing spar lugs. It may well have been the rear spar lug that got in the way, being a large double-lug arrangement to take the bolts from the rear spar and the inboard end of the first diagonal in the same fitting.

Quite a survivor, a fabric wing by 1942. Maybe it missed out on the retrofitting by being in Canada?

Beermat: According to an article in Aeroplane Monthly January 1991, by Phil Jarrett
“On May 15 (1942) an unhappy Lewis ( Hills’s Chief Designer) wrote to Harold Grinsted (Deputy Director of Research and Development( technical investigation) at the Ministry of Aircraft Production).
Hills had been expecting an aircraft with all-metal wings , but L1884/321 had fabric covered units. As the slip-wing attachment had been designed for the metal wing, major modifications were required, because a drag strut at the root of the wing panel projected into the space required for the release gear”
Metal wings were eventually supplied.

The local lifeboat was on standy at sea by SqUires Gate where trials took place so perhaps a wing separation has taken place.

Interested because I was responsible for reverse-engineering and then building a Hurricane fabric wing at one time. The wing bolts and lugs were identical, the idea being interchangeability.. it certainly looks like the Hillson Hurricane used these junctions as mounting points for the upper wing, and it would be logical to attach to the centre section ends, rather than attaching to the outer wing and increasing the potential load on these junctions from outboard. Is the reference you are using publicly available?

Cheers, Matt

Because they couldn’t fit the release mechanism into it; it had to be a metal-covered wing.

Why was the fabric-wing Hurricane useless, Edgar?

The company’s name was F. Hills and Sons; the aircraft needed modifications done before it was considered fit ti fly, and trials didn’t start until 1943. The top wing was never slipped, and indications are that it was never intended. If the concept worked, Hills wanted to try it on the latest Mark of Hurricane, rather than an old Mk.I (which, incidentally, when delivered was fitted with fabric-covered wings, making it useless.) Camm made it plain he wanted nothing to do with it, so Hills were on their own.

I’d bet the process to jettison, would be to do it while pitching over. Wing goes up, Hurricane goes down with a healthy dose of throttle for the two to part company,
If there was film of it I’d certainly like to see it too.
I can picture that wing fluttering like a dropped, crisp bill, until it got smashed to bits that is 😉

Andy

The Hillson Bi-mono did apparently release the wing on several occasions. That appeared to have a fin relatively taller than the Hurricane’s. I can only presume a lift-generating aerofoil was expected to go upwards initially…

That would be my fear too.

…when the fuel was exhausted, the wing and its struts were jettisoned…

…taking the complete tail with it?

Seriously, was the jettison ever tried for real? If it was, I’m sure they’d have wanted air-to-air footage of it; that’s a piece of film I’d love to see!

The top wing had fuel tanks included. The increase in wing area enabled it to actually get off the ground well over MAUW for the monoplane and then after take off and when the fuel was exhausted, the wing and its struts were to be jettisoned.

Moggy