Found myself in Manchester a couple of weeks ago basically just to drool over the Avro Avian at MOSI. While there I picked up some of copies of the Countryside Books ‘Airfields in the Second World War’ series which were going cheap. The Cheshire volume contains the following photo taken at Ringway. The sharp eyed amongst you may notice a Hawker Hector on the left with a four bladed prop. I was unaware that the glider tugs had been fitted with two, two bladed props (very much the 30’s way of producing a four bladed fixed pitch prop) but have since found another photo in the Air Britain K File showing the same configuration (the same photo is also reproduced in Alex Crawford’s Hart Family book). Has anyone seen any other photos of Hectors with four bladed props?
By: G-ASEA - 17th May 2013 at 17:55
One of Lawrence Wrights photos of a Hector with undercarriage problems at Thame.
Dave
By: Hiplanesdrifter - 17th May 2013 at 07:14
Anneorac
My Dad flew them a lot at Thame, he was very fond of them, they did have a weak undercarriage and suffered on the bumpy ground at Thame more than one instance of the pilots parachuting rather than risk landing on broken gear.
Here is a thread which I posted on pprune a few yrs ago which has the tug pilots notes for the Hector it doesn’t answer the prop question but hope you find it interesting. There is a possibility that the 4 blade props were produced by the Hordern Richmond factory at Thame, where the short field towing required every ounce of grunt from the Hector.
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/209050-hector-glider-tugs.html
Also here is a link to Wooden Sword by the late Lawrence Wright – it is an unsung gem of a book
http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/VINTAGE/Books/Wright_Wooden%20Sword_s.pdf
Kind regards
Sandy
By: G-ASEA - 16th May 2013 at 17:52
The late Mike Maufe went to Hawker to over see the fitting of glider hooks on Hawker biplanes from what I remember. Sadly he passed away a few years ago. Even sadder his son passed away last year. But not before the passed on the family Slingsby Kirby Kite 1 to Shuttleworth.
Dave
By: Arabella-Cox - 16th May 2013 at 10:35
It might be of interest to anyone going to the National Archive to have a look at the only two reports written by the AFEE about the Hector as a glider tug.
AFEE T3 Hector towing the Hotspur. AVIA 21/250
AFEE T10 Hector towing 2 Hotspur. AVIA 21/260
The frustrating thing is these two reports may not be any help as the early days of the establishment were poorly reported and a lot of work conducted that didn’t ‘get anywhere’ was never reported. Well I suppose there was a war on.
By: pogno - 16th May 2013 at 08:34
I have been musing over the reason why a four bladed prop would have been fitted to the Hector. The Dagger already suffered from overheating issues which would have been made worse with the high power and low foreward speed when towing a glider.
As the engine is aircooled, by air entering through the intakes, one above and one below the spinner, adding a second pair of blades would have doubled the pulses of forced air into these intakes possibly helping the cooling situation.
Other factors could be noise, which in wartime I doubt was a real issue and climb performance which a finer pitched version of the two bladed prop would have resolved.
Richard
By: sycamore - 15th May 2013 at 19:41
Anneorac,apologies,I have seen the photo and agree it looks like a 2+2; in the first pic there is also a Manchester in the background,minus engines…
By: G-ASEA - 15th May 2013 at 14:56
In the book Manchester Airport by R.A. Scholefield. It say’s that a Hector with a four bladed prop towed a loaded Hotspur glider to 12,000ft on the 12/9/41.
Dave
By: anneorac - 10th May 2013 at 08:40
It`s a 4-bladed prop,not 2×2..
Are you sure?
In the original and much better copy of the second photo you can just make out the rear blades behind the much clearer front blades. Also if it a standard four bladed prop it the photo it’s sitting unusually far forward on the prop shaft.
Anne
By: sycamore - 9th May 2013 at 21:41
It`s a 4-bladed prop,not 2×2..
By: G-ASEA - 9th May 2013 at 20:16
Yes I have. There is a photo close up showing a four bladed prop on a Hector. I think it in the Lawrence Wright collection at The Museum of Army Flying. I came across it when I was looking for photo’s of Slingsby Kirby Kite’s.
The badge on the side of the Hector was designed by War artist Eric Kennington, It was also used on a Hotspur and Hamilcar glider and now on our old Kirby Kite based at Haddenham.
Dave
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May 9, 2013 at 7:12 pm